Collectiott 




Qass. 



Book- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



H^n^iAd^Lr^ 'drr<o cuuC:> 7v<«-<^ 




THE SCOURGING OF A RACE, 



AND OTHER 



SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 



BY 



W. Bishop Johnson, D. D., LL D., 

Pastor of the: Second Baptist Church of 

Washington, D. C; Editor of the 

Nationai. Baptist Magazine. 



Copyright, ig04, by JV. Bishop Johnson, D. D., LL. D. 



City of Washington : 
Beresford, Printer, 6i8 F Street, N. W. 

1904 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Received 

SEP 28 1904 

^Copyrif ht Entry 
CLASS ^ XXc. NO! 

QS 3 / i 

' COPY A. 



u/ 




DEDICATED 
to the memory of my dear mother^ 

MATILDA JOHNSON, 
whose Christian character and moth- 
erly instruction have been an inspi- 
ration and benediction to me all 
through life, and whose spirit I 
shall again commune, with " when 
the mists shall roll ^u way? ^ 



Ill 



Biographical Sketch of the 
Author. 



William Bishop Johnson was born in Toronto, On- 
tario, Canada, December ii, 1858. He graduated from 
the public schools of Buffalo, N. Y., in 1870; the Nor- 
mal School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1874; and 
WayJand Seminary, now Wayland College, of the 
Union University, Richmond, Va., in 1879, graduating 
as valedictorian of his class and taking the prize as 
best orator. 

He was baptized by Rev. J. W. Mitchell, then pastor 
of the Queen Street Baptist Church, Toronto, Ontario, 
in 1872, and was ordained in 1879 for the pastorate of 
the First Baptist Church, Frederick, Md., where he 
built a large congregation and was beloved by all 
classes of people. In 1881 he was appointed by the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society general mis- 
sionary for Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and 
the District of Columbia, and in this position did great 
service for the educational work of 'the denomination, 
collecting thousands of dollars for its support and 
awakening the co-operation of the churches and con- 
ventions with Wayland Seminary. 

In 1882 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics 
and Political Science at Wayland Seminary, a position 
he theld for twelve years, until he voluntarily resigned 
to devote his time to pastoral work. During his con- 
nection with Wayland, as a member of the faculty, he 
acted as soliciting agent for that institution, traveling 
from the mountains to the sea, securing students, until 



iv 

the institution was too small to contain them. Hun- 
dreds of young men in all professions, in this country, 
love and honor their old teacher, and point to him as 
the first man that gave them a start in life. 

In 1883 he accepted the pastorate of the Second Bap- 
tist Church, Washington, D. C, a congregation that 
had long been afflicted with internal dissensions, until 
its membership numbered less than one hundred. It 
now has a membership of 2,200 and one of the most 
beautiful church edifices in the city, built at a cost of 
$75,000 in 1895, with a present indebtedness of $20,- 
000. It is one of the largest and most inteUigent con- 
gregations in the city. Dr. Johnson is the originator 
of the Sunday School Lyceum idea in this country, 
having organized the first in 1885. After nineteen 
years of continuous existence, the Lyceum of Second 
Baptist Church is the most popular literary organiza- 
tion in the Capital City, gathering between 1,500 and 
2,000 on Sunday afternoons, of Washington's bright- 
est and best people, and is a splendid tribute to his 
administrative ability as well as his literar\^ taste. 

Dr. Johnson is still pastor of this church, and greatly 
'beloved by all classes of Washingtonians. In 1891 . 
he organized the National Baptist Educational Con- 
vention, which has since become the Educational 
Board of the National Baptist Convention. Through 
this organization he showed Negro Baptists their 
strength. He federated all schools owned, controlled, 
and managed by Negro Baptists, making them a part 
of the educational machinery of the denomination in 
co-operation with the National Baptist Educational 
Board. He gathered educational data and statistics 
from these institutions and showed their number, loca- 
tion, property valuation, and gathered since 1900, 
$618,333.10 for their maintenance and support. After 
reducing the work to a system and making it pay a 
Idving salary of $1,200 and expenses to a general secre- 
tary, he resigned the work at Philadelphia, Pa., in 



1903, not having received one cent of salary in estab- 
lishing a work that took over ten of the best years of 
his life to make a success. 

In 1893 he was elected managing editor of the Na- 
tional Baptist Magazine, the literary organ of the Na- 
tional Baptist Convention. The Magazine was to pre- 
pare the way for our publishing house. This it did 
by locating strong writers and showing that the de- 
nomination was ready for such an institution. The 
Magazine was the finest periodical ever published by 
the denomination. Dr. Johnson showed himself to 
be one of the most powerful and versatile writers con- 
nected with the race. He had previously been editor 
of the Baptist Companion in 1886, and the Wayland 
Alumni Journal^ in 1890. 

Dr. Johnson holds many positions of honor and 
trust, among which we name the following: Life 
member of the American Baptist Home Mission So- 
ciety; Virginia Baptist State Convention; National 
Baptist Convention ; Trustee of Virginia Seminary and 
College; Trustee of Baptist Ministers' Home; Direc- 
tor of Young People's Christian and Educational Con- 
ference, and several others. As a preacher he is one 
of the most eloquent orators in America; he is an 
erudite scholar and a strong writer on any subject. 
We quote an extract from the pen of the scholarly 
Editor Isaac, of the Baptist Union, the organ of Negro 
Baptists. 

"We agree with our Connecticut contemporary that 
he is a magnetic, thrilling speaker. Dr. Johnson is a 
ripe scholar, with intellectual endowments of a rich 
and rare variety. He is well informed on subjects 
secular and rehgious. His appearance before an au- 
dience is a guarantee that the audience, if composed 
of thinking people, will be abundantly satisfied. He 
has the eloquence of intellect, not of imagination, and 
it is amazing to what heights he can reach. He excites 
his opponents in debate most easily ; annihilates all con- 



VI 

flicting opinions, and turns whok assemblies into aston- 
ishment, admiration, and awe." 

He is in sympathy with all race enterprises and be- 
lieves in the capability of the Negro, first, last, and all 
the time. 

In 1888 the State University of Kentucky conferred 
upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 
1904 he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from 
the Virginia Theological Seminary and College. 

E. M. Brawi^ky, 
President Bible Institute. 

Fernandina, Fla., July 25, 1904. 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Eiograpliical Sketch of the Author, .... iii 

The Scourging of a Race, i 

A Broadened Vision the Need of Twentieth Century Chris- 
tianity, i8 

The Wheels of Providence, . . . . . . . 32 

The Coming of Shiloh, 39 

A Throne of Glory, 50 

Citizenship, Suffrage and the Negro, .... 59 

Ruth — A Noble Type of True Womanhood, ... 73 

The Divine-Humanity, 81 

The Baptists and the Reformation, 91 

Seven Seals, 99 

What Next? 108 

Eulogy on William J. Simmons, D, D., LL. D., . ' . 112 

The Religious Status of the Negro, 124 

National Perils, 133 

The Character and Work of the Apostle Paul, . . . 140 

Robert G. Shaw, . . . . . . . . 144 

The Religious and Secular Press Compared, . . . 148 



viii Index. 

The Value of Baptist Principles to the American Govern- 
ment, 154 

The Church as a Factor in the Race Problem, . . .167 

The Divinity of the Church, . . . . . . 173 

Christian Resources of Afro-Americans, .... 181 

The Vacant Tomb, 189 

The Negro in War and Peace, 196 

Human Character. Its Sure Foundation, . . . 205 

The Unspeakable Gift, 215 

The Church and the Age, 224 



The Scourging of a Race. 



When a man's ways please the Lord: he maketh even his 
enemies to be at peace with him. — Prov. xvi, 7. 

And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto 
him out of the mountain; saying, Thus shalt thou say to the 
house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel : Ye have seen 
what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' 
wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye 
will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye 
shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all 
the earth is mine : And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of 
priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou 
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and 
called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces 
all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the 
people answered together, and said. All that the Lord hath 
spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the 
people unto the Lord. — Bxodus xix, 3-8. 

The hour of trial is upon us. Neariy forty years 
have rolled into the deathless past and the American 
Negro has contributed his part to the world's civiliza- 
tion, and to the peace and progress of the American 
people, under the most discouraging and humiliating 
conditions that have confronted any people in all his- 
tory. It v^ill be conceded that the peculiar economic 
and social surroundings of the Negro American are 
not of his making. He was made an element, in the 
life of this republic, without his consent, and has for 
nearly three hundreds years' residence in this Country, 
been a source of solicitude, a problematical quantity, 
in our national equation, which we seem as far from 
satisfactorily solving to-day as when we first com- 
menced its solution. 

All the wisdom and farsighted acumen of the people 
is baffled, and in spite of every imaginable barrier 
1 



2 The Scourging of a Race, 

thrown in his way, he has managed to stand up and 
contend for existence, giving as his right to hve, the 
possession of wealth, reHgion, and education, three of 
the most important forces in the rise and progress of 
any people. 

Every question, afifecting the development of a peo- 
ple in strength and efficiency, has its dark as well as 
its bright side. That the Negro has made unparalleled 
vtrides toward the meridian of the highest and best 
achievements no student of history will dare to deny. 
But while he has shaken the dews of a dark and be- 
nighted night from his locks, and helped to burst the 
chains of his own enslavement, so that he now stands 
with his face to the rising sun ; new environments and 
stronger barriers, almost insurmountable, have thrown 
themselves in his path and he finds himself confronted 
with conditions that must contest his right to live 
among a people, whose traditions, language, institu- 
tions, and laws are against him. 

Whatever of sympathy he enjoyed in the morning 
of his freedom is now passed away, like the mists of 
the mountain top before the uprising sun; whatever 
friends stood in the fray in his behalf and battled for 
his betterment, with voice and purse and pen, have dis- 
appeared from the arena of public life and usefulness 
and he is left, without sentiment to make sentiment; 
without law to create a law for himself; without a 
voice to be his own voice, crying in the wilderness of 
American prejudice and Caucasian hatred, for the right 
to live and move and have his being, not as a slave nor 
pauper, not as' a criminal nor moral leper; but as a 
man, a citizen, a brother. 

Here he stands; interwoven into the life and blood 
of the American people. Menacing their peace and 
progress, ten million strong. 

Here he stands; within his sable hands he bears. the 
implements of toil ; upon his sable face he wears the 
marks of intelligence and character; within his heart. 



The Scoiirging of a Race, 3 

he bears no ill will to the hand that has forged the 
chains that enslaved him, nor the wild and senseless 
prejudice that blinds its sight to every evidence of his 
progress and all the record of his devotion to the best 
interests of every community where he lives. Here 
he stands ; with a history for patriotism, that was writ- 
ten in the crimson tide that flowed from the body of 
Crispus Attucks in Revolutionary times and curled 
itself through every war waged by the American peo- 
ple, until it wrote of his daring and love of country, 
amidst the howling, dying, and smoking battlefields of 
El Caney and San Juan Hill, and e'en now carries his 
life in his hands, along with his white brother in the 
Philippines, to attest to the world, that though hated 
and oppressed at home, crushed and bleeding in the 
land of his birth, yet he dies fighting for the flag that 
protects every man but the Negro, who dies a wilUng 
sacrifice for it, away from home and native land. 

But it is not to our persecutors outside of the race 
that I wish to call your attention; it is to some facts 
as they relate to the vitals of race existence. It is to 
the danger line of our development. 

It is to remind the Negro of himself and to direct 
him to his God that I have asked you to be present this 
morning. 

The mighty achievements of the Negro stand like 
the granite walls of a Gibraltar ; the silent and perma- 
nent progress he is still making, in spite of all obstacles 
thrown in his way, will be written up by some future 
historian. It is with the present I wish to deal. Nearly 
forty years of freedom finds us more heavily burdened 
than ever. Before our eves, we have seen swept away, 
everything that stands for citizenship, and that helps 
to make a people happy and prosperous. Now, why 
should the Negro be scourged so unmercifully after 
these years of sacrifice and service, in a land he has 
helped to enrich, and which he still helps to beautify 
and maintain? 



4 The Scotcrging of a Race, 

If these hateful conditions affected one man, I should 
be inclined to pass them by unnoticed, but when they 
affect ten million Negroes, and steadily increase in 
their intensity and unreasonableness, from year to 
year, I am inclined to look behind all this constancy 
of persecution to find another cause and see whether 
the God of heaven hath not a purpose in passing the 
Negro through these crucial fires, in order to teach a 
great lesson of love and endurance. 

"When a man's ways please the Lord He maketh 
even his enemies to be at peace with him." Do the 
ways of the race please the Lord ? God is in all history^ 
and all history has a unit because God is in it. Provi- 
dence is the light of history and the soul of the world. 
It is only when we see God in history that we get at 
its clear significance and truth. God's providence is 
the golden thread that passes through the entire web 
of human destiny and gives it its strength and beauty 
and consistency. 

National calamities mean more than individual ones, 
because they affect a wider circle, since nations repre- 
sent more than the individual. Nations live longer 
than individuals, hence they make a record, more stable 
and lasting; their positions as creators of ideals and 
sentiment is vastly more far-reaching than the in- 
dividual. What is true of nations is also true to a 
lesser extent of races. Now, when God deals with a 
nation or race, and permits that race to prosper or 
retrograde, He has some mighty object in view — 
either that of punishment or reward. Whatever pun- 
ishment God extends to individuals or nations, on 
earth, is intended for their reformation, not always 
their utter destruction. If they hear and repent, God 
will be merciful to them and help them. If they persist 
in their evil course, God will utterly destroy them or 
cut them short of their glory. God punishes nations 
on earth ; individuals in eternity. 

This was true with God's dealing with the Egyptians,. 



The Scourging of a Race, 5 

Babylonians, Grecians, Romans, and especially so of 
the- Israelites, whose history during the forty 3^ears 
migration in the wilderness I have selected as a 
parallel of the Negro's forty years of meanderings in 
the land of freedom. I find many parallel lines and I 
shall show how God scourged Israel forty years. In 
the world's infancy, God made a promise to Abraham, 
one of the most august characters in history, and the 
Father of the faithful, saying, "I will make thee a 
great nation ; and I will bless thee and make thy name 
great ; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless 
them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee. 
And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." 
— Gen, xii, 2-^, 

Seven hundred years after this promise, Abraham's 
children — Israel — are found in captivity to the Egyp- 
tians, where they are held in slavery, until liberated by 
the hand of the Lord. Upon the very hour of eman- 
cipation, Israel started upon an expedition to the 
promised land — a forty years' tramp in the wilderness. 
In this wilderness campaign they murmured against 
]\Ioses and wished themselves back in Egypt. God 
gave them quail and manna. They murmured for 
water, and Moses smote the rock, so that they were 
supplied ; they warred with the Amalekites ; God gave 
them victory. They lapsed into idolatry while Moses 
was upon Sinai's burning brow, receiving the law from 
the hand of God, and the Lord destroyed the idolaters. 

In the midst of the journey, hostile nations arose 
against Israel and contested every foot of the ground 
and sought to keep them from the promised land. The 
Amalekites, Canaanites, Gibeonites, Amorites, Hittites, 
Perrizites, Jebusites, Hivites, and subsequently the 
Phillistines. Their enemies, in number, were as sands 
upon the seashore, and in size as giants ; they fought 
Israel by day and night, but long as Israel remembered 
its covenant with God, and walked in his fear, she 
triumphed, but when she turned away from her de- 



6 The Scourging of a Race, 

liverer, and went after strange gods, the God of heaven 
forsook her. 

All these enemies and adverses were brought upon 
these chosen people because of their ingratitude to 
God for his benefits to them as a people. Hear the 
record in Judges x, d-/, ''And the children of Israel 
did evil again in the sight of the Lord and served 
Baalim and Ashtaroth and gods of Syria and the gods 
of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the 
children of Ammon, and the gods of the Phillistines 
and forsook the Lord and served not him. And the 
anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he sold 
them into the hands of the Phillistines and the hands 
of the children of Ammon, and that year they vexed 
and oppressed the children of Israel eighteen years.'' 

Here is the indictment against them. Judges iij 10-2^, 

''And there arose another generation after them, 
which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he 
had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did 
evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim; and 
they forsook the Lord, God of their fathers, which, 
brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed 
other gods, of the gods of the people that were round 
about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and 
provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the 
Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger 
of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered 
them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and 
he sold them into the hands of the enemies round 
about; so that they could not stand any longer before 
their enemies. 

"Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord 
was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and 
as the Lord had sworn unto them; and they were 
greatly distressed. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up 
judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those 
that spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken 
unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other 



The Scourgmg of a Race. 7 

gods, and bowed themselves unto them; they turned 
quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, 
obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they 
did not so. 

"And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the 
Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of 
the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; 
for it repented the Lord because of their groanings by 
reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. 

''And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, 
that they returned, and corrupted themselves more 
than their fathers, in following other gods to serve 
them; -they ceased not from their own doings, nor 
from their stubborn way. And the anger of the Lord 
was hot against Israel ; and he said. Because that this 
people hath transgressed my covenant, which I com- 
manded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto 
my voice ; I also will not henceforth drive out any from 
before them of the nations which Joshua left when 
he died; That through them I may prove Israel, 
whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk 
therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. 

"Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driv- 
ing them out hastily; neither delivered he them into 
the hand of Joshua.'' 

1. They murmured against their leader, Moses. 

2. They murmured about their condition. 

3. They made a golden calf and worshiped it, and 
God applied the scourge to them, in order to bring 
them to their covenant with God and their duty to 
their deliverer. 

4. They murmured against God and Moses — and 
God sends fiery serpents among them and they bit them 
unto death. 

Therefore the people came to Moses and said. We 
have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and 
against thee, pray unto the Lord that he take away the 



8 The Scourging of a Race, 

serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 
— Numbers xxi, 7-10. 

And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon 
a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten 
any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. 
And the children of Israel set forward and pitched in 
Oboth. 

Their disobedience was so marked, the forgetfulness 
of God so frequent, that only Caleb and Joshua were 
permitted to see the promised land, after forty years 
of toil, privation, sorrow, danger, disappointment, 
death, and expectancy in the wilderness. 
Truly, 

"God moves in a mysterious way, 

His wonders to perform, 
He plants his footsteps on the sea, 
And rides upon the storm." 

There is a close analogy between God's dealing with 
Israel and his way with the Negro, especially since 
emancipation. We all know in the dark, dark days 
of slavery, our mothers and fathers called, upon the 
God of heaven to be liberated. They wanted to breathe 
liberty's atmosphere, and they promised God to serve 
him, even better, when slavery's chain had been bursted 
and they could worship him under their own vine and 
fig tree. We also know how Providence brought the 
creation of sentiment in the republic against slavery, 
through the matchless oratory and services of such 
men as John Brown, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William 
Loyd Garrison, Abraham Lincoln, Wendell Phillips, 
Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson, Theo. Parker, Fred- 
erick Douglass, and Henry Ward Beecher. 

We do not forget how God put it into the hearts of 
Christians and philanthropists to establish schools and 
colleges for the education of the great illiterate masses 
of humanity, which were not prepared to take the first 
step in self-government nor self-support. We cannot 
eliminate this element of providence from any part of 



The Scourgi72g of a Race, 9 

our racial lives and whatever vantage ground we oc- 
cupy to-day, both in our individual and racial capacity, 
is directly due to that hand, ''that holdeth all things 
in its grasp, and that gracious spirit that doeth as he 
willeth in the kingdom of heaven and among the in- 
habitants of the earth." 

We must not forget that the deep religious fervor, 
the unwavering faith in God, the beautiful fidelity of 
the Negro, to the principles of Christianity, is one of 
the most remarkable things in his history, and in spite 
of prejudice has deeply impressed the people among 
whom we live. Providence has led thus far. Let no 
one think, we do not figure in the divine economy, or 
that we are not an element, in the divine scheme for 
the world's enlightment and civilization. 

God is still with us. His sleepless eye is ever upon 
us. His arms, everlasting, are still around us. He is 
still our Sun and Shield. He still gives grace and 
glory. No good thing does he withhold from those 
w^ho walk uprightly. But while God loves us still, we 
must not forget his word, which says, ''Whom the 
Lord loveth, he chasteneth.'' 

Let us look at the evils, that have overtaken us as a 
people in the last few years and see if God is not per- 
mitting our enemies to scourge us as he did Israel. 
God has no new way to deal with nations or races. 
He says, "If any man will serve me, him will my 
father honor." And this honor is to be conferred in 
life as well as in death. 

"The hill of Zion yields 

A thousand sacred sweets, 
Before we reach the heavenly fields, 

Or walk the golden streets." 

He has been applying this rule of service and re- 
ward, since our first parents stood amidst Eden's bow- 
ers ; clad in innocency and dwelling in perpetual union 
with their God. 



lo The Scourging of a Race. 

What is the scourge he is using to bring the Negro 
Race to duty? No one will deny that we are forget- 
ting God; we have spent too much time with the de- 
velopment of the intellect at the expense of our moral 
and spiritual natures. God has made man a sym- 
metrical being — put within him a trinity of forces — 
the intellect, will, sensibilities. He intended that no 
man should be properly trained until all these forces 
had been governed and disciplined. He intends that 
the mighty powers of the soul should be directed to 
God and his law — that the heart should be made re- 
sponsive to duty to God and man. 

There is a notable loss of manhood among us. 
We are not chivalric in our treatment of the woman- 
hood of the race. We allow our women to be sub- 
jected to insults without resentment or demand for 
satisfaction, and so our children do not feel that father 
is much protection to the home. 

This weakness is seen in a disposition to live by 
our wits, to catch hold of any makeshift, in order to 
keep up life ; to ignore honest labor, and to scorn the 
man whose hand is hard and horny, and whose sinewy 
arm is the bread winner for the home. If you take 
away from any race its manly men, you reduce that 
race to the worse condition of poverty. I mean by 
manly men, those who are swayed by noble principles, 
honesty, industry, purity of morals, thrift, courteous, 
friends of truth and righteousness. We suffer in- 
tensely from the lack of race unity. This keeps us 
from being strong and mighty instrumentalities, in the 
hands of God, toward advancing his Kingdom. 

We are not getting nearer together. The intelligent 
Negro, all things considered, is worse than his illiterate 
members of the race. This lack of cohesion, I regard 
as the most dangerous enemy to Negro progress. I 
find nowhere in history, where a race has become 
strong, that did not stand together as a unit upon the 
fundamentals of race development. This lack of unity 



The Scourging of a Race, li 

is responsible for all the evils, that have fastened upon 
us. We are disposed not to be led; to vilify and 
slander the men, whom we have selected to lead or 
who by superior advantages are in the lead ; to under- 
rate their character and ability, to w^hite people, when 
they have no concern in the matter. The Negroes 
are the only people w^ho murder their leaders, with 
slander and misrepresentation, and then permit them " 
to lead as though they were paragons of perfection. 
They have allowed none to escape, from the highest 
to the lowest. No people succeed without leaders and 
it is a slander upon the race for any man to publicly 
announce that there is no Negro good enough to lead 
another Negro; no Negro physician, no Negro law- 
yer, no Negro teacher, no Negro preacher, to be 
trusted. Shame on any Negro who shows his weak- 
ness by such statements. We are not careful enough 
about the moral atmosphere of the home. There are 
dangerous and deadly enemies, asking admission into 
our homes. There can be no place on earth like home. 
No race will rise higher than its home life. It is the 
basis of race existence and development. It is the 
supply house for the moral energy of the race. From 
its sacred walls must go forth the real men and women, 
who are either to honor or dishonor. 

We should not exclude God and the Bible from the 
home. God in the home means peace and prosperity; 
means inspiration and hope for the young and com- 
fort and edification for the old. The light of the Bible 
is like the body of heaven in its clearness ; its vastness 
like the bosom of the sea ; its variety like the scenes of 
nature. It towers beyond the blue secrets of heaven, 
and spreads all its trophies at our feet. Thank God 
for the Bible in the home. 

We are not growing in our faith in God, We are 
depending too much on secondary things. A race, 
without faith in God, is a race of idolaters. Man must 
have some object of worship. God says, ''Thou shalt 



12 The Scourging of a Race, 

have none other Gods before me." We are told by a 
man, who stands for much as a leader, that we ought 
not to say so much about dying, and more about liv- 
ing; that we should get more of the world and less of 
religion; such doctrine as that will be responsible for 
any army of infields in the next twenty years. Heaven 
help a race that forgets God. That is one of the rea- 
sons God scourged the children of Israel, to bring 
them to God and duty 

We make the mistake of attributing all our pros- 
perity to secondary causes. Here is a man who says, 
*'I am prosperous because I attend to my business; I 
am honest, industrious, temperate." These are beau- 
tiful things in themselves — ^^honesty, industry, temper- 
ance — but no man is prosperous only in so far as God 
permits him to prosper. ''Every good and perfect gift 
cometh from above." There can be no permanent 
prosperity when we ignore God, as the bountiful giver 
to mankind. Thousands of men have been shipwrecked 
upon this rock. Read the record of illustrious men; 
how melancholy, often, are the latter days of those 
who have climbed the heights ! 

Caesar is stabbed when he has conquered the world. 
Diocletian retires in disgust from the government of 
an empire. Godfrey languishes in grief when he has 
taken Jerusalem. Charles V shuts himself up in a 
convent. Gallileo, whose spirit has roamed the 
heavens, and surprised the secrets of the most distant 
stars, is a prisoner of the Inquisition. Napoleon mas- 
ters a continent, and then expires on a rock in the 
ocean. Mirabeau dies of despair when he has kindled 
the torch of the revolution. The poetic soul of Burns 
passes away in poverty and moral eclipse. 

Madness overtakes the cool satirist, Swift, and men- 
tal degeneracy is the final condition of the fertile 
minded Scott. The high-souled Hamilton perishes in 
a petty quarrel, and curses overwhelm Webster, in the 
halls of his early triumphs. What a confirmation of 



The Scourging of a Race, 13 

the experience of Solomon! ''Vanity of vanities'' — 
write it on all walls, in all the chambers of pleasure, in 
all the places of pride. 

God sees in the Negro evils to remedy, which he 
cannot see himself. His wisdom is gradually fitting 
him to play a mighty part in the world's history. God 
is our master, and it is his prerogative to throw around 
us whatever discipline, as shall best fit us, for what- 
ever service he may have for us in the great sweep of 
divine foreknowledge, and in the very work yet to 
make us "pillars in the temple of our God." There 
has always been an inseparable connection between 
sacrifice, service, and suffering. No people has ever 
been placed upon the altar of sacrifice by the Great 
High Priest of the universe, who has not served a high 
purpose in the economy of grace, and God has not 
called any people to sacrifice, service, and suffering 
without crowning their lives with rich and abundant 
reward when they have been faithful. 

It is the language of divine inspiration, ''He that is 
faithful in few things, I will make ruler over many." 
The attempt of our enemies to humiliate, crush, and 
destroy the Negro, is one way God is applying the 
scourge to the race. In every section of this country 
race hatred and prejudice is on the increase. In many 
places where its poisonous breath has never been felt 
before; in sections, noted, heretofore, for fairness and 
justice, it has forced men to forget the common laws 
of humanity, and join the howling mob that cries, 
"Down with the Negro !" "Kill him !" "Lynch him !" 

The fact that in all the South, vitiated and devilish 
public sentiment born of ignorance and sectional preju- 
dice has placed upon the statute books laws that force 
the railway companies to provide a separate coach for 
Negroes ; and that puts no premium upon respectability 
nor financial worth, but says to the immoral, criminal, 
and diseased, "Go mingle with the moral purity, best 
brain and character of your race; huddle in the dirt 



14 The Scourging of a Race, 

and filth of a separate coach, and pay the same fare 
as those who ride in a luxurious adjoining car/' and 
this in a country of boasted liberty ; the friend of . 
suffering humanity abroad, while festering crowds are 
suffering within our own gates. 

This legislation intended to humiliate the best Negro ; 
to crush his manhood and destroy his race pride, is 
the scourge in the hands of the Almighty, driving the 
Negroes together and preparing them to surprise the 
world in racial unity and self-protection. 

The disfranchisement of the Negro, by which he is 
reduced to a political nonentity, is another scourge 
with which God is whipping the Negro to acquire 
property and education. It is simply making him a 
stronger man -in the community, and while it robs him 
of the badge of citizenship, it brings him to the point 
where he finds it to his advantage to build character 
and make himself so thoroughly an essential element 
of progress and prosperity that an exalted public senti- 
ment will be created against this relic of human selfish- 
ness, American prejudice and race legislation, which 
will bring the South to its senses and sweep it forever 
from among a people whose declaration of independ- 
ence declares all men ''free and equal.'' 

Such legislaton as Jim Crow car laws cannot live 
long among a free people and at this stage of civiliza- 
tion that is everywhere putting a premium upon worth, 
not color; upon character, rather than accident of 
birth. The fact that the Negro is not secure in his life 
and property, but is ruthlessly lynched under any pre- 
text or exiled from home because he has an opinion 
and expressed it, is another scourge. That such an 
appalling sentiment could exist ; such a dangerous and 
deadly unwritten law could be sustained, in a country 
like this, shows an unjust and wicked public sentiment 
that sustains it. Here are the courts that guarantee a 
fair and impartial trial to the humblest citizen, ignored 
and a state of anarchy and mob violence placed in their 



The Scourging of a Race. 15 

stead. Men administer law to suit themselves, in the 
face of duly appointed administrators, appointed by 
the State and elected by the suffrages of the people. 

There are but few places in America where the lives 
and property of Negroes are secure.. The civilized 
world knows this. Our fame as a nation of lynchers, 
who does not believe in the courts we,, ourselves, have 
established, but resorts to lawlessness and murder 
is internatonal — universal. This lawless spirit among 
us takes. the American people out of the list of humani- 
tarians and classifies them with the Russian Massacre, 
Chinese Boxers, and African Cannibals. Lynching is 
now an American pastime. And no one can tell when 
the most representative Negro will be subjected to the 
noose or provide a roast for a howling mob. 

All this makes the Negro unhappy and creates in 
him a temptation to be unpatriotic when the nation's 
life is in danger and puts him out of harmony with 
everything American. The Negroes do not intend to 
leave America, and the American people might as well 
arrange to take him along. Assimilate them as a part 
of the people ; and let them go up or down upon their 
own merits. If they cannot stand the severe pressure 
of competition with other people; if they have not in 
themi the natural qualities that can fight resistance, 
legitimate resistance ; if they cannot stand the crucial 
fires, along w^ith others, then they ought to die and be 
forgotten. 

God is permitting all this lawlessness, this flagrant 
injustice, this ingratitude of the American people for 
the Negroes, who gave their lives to save this country 
against the white men who plotted to ruin it ; God per- 
mits these things to come upon us, that we may be 
made perfect through sufifering and ready for the 
battle that will come some day in this country between 
right and wrong ; between the weak and .strong. Be- 
cause a race is once backward is no sign it will al- 
ways be so. Japan is an illustration of how "a little 



1 6 The Scourging of a Race. 

one may become a thousand," and how that same little 
one will some day surprise the world. 

The American people are as unreasonable as they 
are unjust. They damn us if we do; and they damn 
us if we don't do. The Negro has reduced his illiteracy 
at a greater rate than any other people. He has shown 
that an education does for him what it does for every 
man — makes him conscious of his- relation to others ; 
improves his condition ; makes him a better citizen and 
a nobler man. And yet we are told the educated Negro 
is a failure, and that education unfits him for service. 
Whatever may be the criminal record of the race in 
this country, it is not made up of the educated Negroes. 

They have not contributed to the prison houses and 
the great army of those who care not for law and 
order. The door of opportunity has been closed and 
barred in their faces, and they have been denied the 
smallest chance to succeed among the people, yet we 
find them in possession of sterling character, church, 
school, and private property; their homes are models 
of refinement and their children clothed in neat and 
becoming apparel. Can the Anglo-Saxon say as much? 
Does he forget the large percentage of educated crimi- 
nals, who hold position of public trust? Is there an- 
nals, who languish in prison cells ; the malfeasance in 
office of those who hold positions of public trust? Is 
there another people, judging from grand jury indict- 
ments, and judicial decisions, who hold a more just title 
to outlawry, thievery, bribery, embezzlement, robbery, 
murder, and every other crime found in the catalogue 
of crimnology than the white people, and do not the 
educated classes among them find a large representa- 
tion in jails and prisons? 

Now, if education ruins, whom does it ruin, the 
Negro, or the white man? No one need worry about 
the Negro and his education ; he has such a fine start 
up the steeps of knowledge, that only God can hinder 
them from reaching the Pierian heights. All these 
evils are the scourge of the Almighty, provoking the 



The Scourghig of a Race. 17 

Negro to- a larger faith in God, and a more devout 
Christian Ufe and service. The hves of our fathers 
were marked by prayer to God for direction and pro- 
tection. The Hves of their children must be charac- 
terized by the same. It means heaven's sympathy; 
heaven's assistance ; heaven's protection. 

The hour has come when the race must fall upon 
its knees and in the name of that God that hears the 
cries of the oppressed; that Christ whose sacred heart 
is filled with sympathy and whose holy and omnific 
arm is always outstretched in behalf of those who love 
him, and who declares no weapon formed against us 
shall prosper, and every tongue that rises in judg- 
ment shall be condemned — ^call, with unwavering faith, 
for help against the mighty; against those who fill 
the earth with widows and cause the orphan's heart 
to bleed. 

When a man's ways please the Lord he maketh 
even his enemies to be at peace with him. See to it 
that our ways please the Lord. That the heart beat 
of the race is in union with God and in harmony with 
his law. See to it that no other gods shall take the 
place of him who weigheth the mountains in scales 
and the hills in a balance and who meteth out the 
heavens with a span and holdeth the waters in the 
hollow of his hand. Let us turn our faces toward the 
God of heaven, acknowledging our sins and finding 
forgiveness in the blood of a crucified Redeemer. 

Then shall our enemies turn from us ; then shall the 
Lord return to Zion and everlasting songs of deliver- 
ance shall be upon our tongue; and the desert and 
soHtary place shall clap their hands and men shall 
beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears 
into pruning hooks. Nation shall not Hft up sword 
against Nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 
And the loftiness of m.an shall be bowed down and the 
haughtiness of men shall be made low and the Lord 
alone shall be exalted in that day. 

2 



1 8 The Scour gmg of a Race. 

A Broadened Vision the Need of 
Twentieth Centu rv Christio nitv. 



riftv-Eighm Hnnlversarv Sermon of Emanuel Baptist Church, 
New Haven, Conn., Rev. 7^. C. Powell, D. D., Pastor, 1903. 



"Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory 
unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our 
God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands 
upon us; yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it." — 
Psalm xc, 16-17. 

Between the mount of vision and the mount of ful- 
fillment there stretches the wide, deep valley of sacri- 
fice, service, and suffering; the way of crossing this 
reveals the method and character of the one passing 
from mount to mount. Many have visions, a few have 
fulfillment; but the price paid in the valley tests the 
character. 

Joseph, the son of Jacob, stood on the mount of 
vision in the morning of life. The garnered grain in 
the harvest field and the sources of light in the fields 
of space were of letters of gold and silver for the spell- 
ing of the vision. At high noon of life's day Joseph 
sat upon the mount of fulfillment with a waiting world 
at his feet. Between the morning and the noontide 
stretched the valley with its pit, prison, and palace. 
The measure of the man is found, not in the vision, 
nor yet in the fulfillment, but in the valley between. 

Moses, the son of Jochebed, had a vision of a freed 
people: he thought his countrymen would understand 
how Jehovah meant to free them by him, but they 
understood not. Eighty years later he stood on Nebo's 



The Scourging of a Race, 19 

mount looking down upon an organized nation, a dis- 
ciplined army, out upon the Promised Land, waiting 
for the call of God. Betw^een the vision and the ful- 
fillment stretched the forty years in the country back 
of the desert, and forty years in the wilderness of 
wandering. These eighty years are the price of suc- 
cess and the measure of character. 

Jesus, the son of Mary, stood upon the mount of 
temptation and had a vision of the w^orld with the 
kingdoms thereof. The sum of the world's civiliza- 
tion passed before Him in panoramic beauty ; power is 
the condition of conquest, and surrender is the price 
of power. Three years later He stands upon the mount 
of fulfillment. All power is given Him in heaven and 
in earth. The price asked on the mount of vision 
would have cost Him power in heaven; the price paid 
in the valley returns him power in heaven and in earth. 
The three years of sacrifice, service, and suffering re- 
veal Christ's missionary method, and by the method 
the character. In winning the world Christ depends 
upon two forces — truth and life. Truth must be 
taught; life must be sacrificed. Christ was a Teacher 
and a Sacrifice. He calls on the church to teach truth 
and to sacrifice life. 

Christ w^as the Great Teacher. On the threshold 
of his mission Nicodemus welcomed Jesus as a Teacher 
sent from God. He accepted the title, called His fol- 
lowers disciples, depended upon teaching to draw men 
to Himself, sent His disciples into the world to make 
disciples. Isaiah, speaking for Jehovah, says: ''My 
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways 
my ways." The ways express the thoughts. Thoughts 
are the soul of ways, ways are the body of thoughts. 
To lead men in God's ways we must first teach men 
God's thoughts. ''As a man thinketh in his heart so 
is he," and as he is so is the universe to him. Every 
man stands at the center of his universe. To change 
the center is to change zenith, nadir, and horizon. To 



20 The Scourgifig of a Race. 

change the mind is to change the center. The key- 
words of the kingdom of God are repent, beheve; to 
repent is to change the mind, to beheve is to accept 
the new truth. ''The mind is its own place, and of 
itself can make a hell of heaven, a heaven of hell.'' 
Christ came into the iworld to bear witness to the 
truth: ''Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall 
make you free." Christ's kingdom is truth ; it may be 
taught, received, and received changes the character 
and transforms the life. 

In every undertaking we have an end or ends to an- 
swer, to which all our labors are directed. It is no 
less so in religious undertakings than in others, and 
as these are pure and worthy of pursuits, such is the 
good or evil of our exertions. 

What are, or at least should be, the great end of 3 
Christian congregation in rearing a place for divine 
worship? What are the main desires of serious peo- 
ple among you now it is reared? If I mistake not, 
they are depicted in the passage I have read: That 
God's work may appear among you in your own time 
— that it may be continued to posterity — that God 
would beautify you with salvation and prosper the 
work of your hands. 

All the work of God is great. He is a being whose 
center is everywhere, but whose circumference is 
nowhere. He is easily understood by the lowest of 
his spiritual children, but incomprehensible to the 
highest and mightiest seraphim that burns and blazes 
around His throne or hurries to do heaven's high be- 
hest. His work is great in miniature as well as mag- 
nitude. With one hand He holds the pillars of a bound- 
less universe in their places and (with another paints 
the Hly with beauty; with one hand He weighs the 
towering mountains in scales and the hills in a balance 
and with the other places the golden sand grain in 
position, by the restless heaving sea; with one hand 
he is making a ring of one hundred thousand miles 



The Scourging of a Race, 21 

in diameter, to revolve round a planet like Saturn and 
with the other is forming a tooth in the feather of the 
humming bird or a point in the claw of the foot of a 
microscopic insect. 

With one hand He leads forth the Sun from his 
oriental chamber, until its meridian rays guild earth 
and sky, and with the other whips the surging, angry 
billows of old Ocean into silence, saying, ''Thus far 
5halt thou go and no further/' With one hand He 
feeds the myriad hosts of feathered beauties and with 
the other scatters His blessings among the higher 
order of His creation. Nothing escapes His notice; 
nothing lives without His smile. He spake, and out of 
the womb of chaotic confusion leaped a beauteous 
world. He commanded and there stood man, the 
noblest work of creation. Man, the breath of the 
Almighty. The imprint of Jehovah. The wonder of 
angels ; the being that filled heaven's eyes with 
tears, in his fall, and called out the highest acclama- 
tions of glory in his redemption. ]\Ian — noble in 
reason; infinite in faculty; in form and moving ex- 
press and admirable ; in action like an angel ; in appre- 
hension like a God. 

Let the work of creation appear. The Psalmist de- 
sired an enlargement of vision, a widening of spiritual 
sweep. He prays for visibility. It is nece-ssary for 
our spiritual growth and development, to take a sort 
of panoramic view of the works of God. To stand upon 
the height of faith, and let pass all of God's goodness, 
in creation, providence, redemption. To hear, anew, 
the infant voice of a new-born universe and see worlds 
roll up out of nothing and take their places in the 
magnificent spectacular procession of the works of 
God in creation ; God among the nations ; God moving 
in His unchangeable and eternal purposes, along the 
line of human history — of human destiny. God rolling 
out of the co-nfusion that sin has made, a world pre- 
pared for the coming Messiah ; God ''moving in a mys- 



22 The Scourging of a Race, 

terious way His wonders to perform, planting His foot- 
step in the sea and iriding upon the storm/' 

In the work of God, the smallest beginnings lead to 
some sure result. Great revolutions result from the 
most insignificant starting point in the government of 
God. God said at the fall of our parents, when Para- 
dise trembled with his wrath, ''The see-d of the woman 
shall bruise the serpent's head." It took four thousand 
years to teach the world what Jehovah meant by this 
first promise to our first parents. There are no dis- 
connected events in the universe of God. The natural 
and moral worlds are held together, in their operations 
by an incessant administration. It is the mighty grasp 
of a controlling 'hand tiiat keeps everything in its 
station. 

God's way is often in ''the whirlwind and the storm, 
while the clouds are the dust of ihis feet," but the eye 
of faith clears away the mystery and introduces the 
soul into the ways of God's kingdom, that are so plain 
the wayfaring man, though fool, may not err therein. 
There may be mysteries in God's works, but they are 
watched over by Him whose eyes behold and whose 
eye-lids try the children of men. 

The sentences in the Book of Providence are some- 
times long and you must read a great way before you 
understand their meaning. Bedford prison gave to 
the world the immortal dreamer, John Btmyan and the 
beautiful allegory. Pilgrim's Progress. The Lion's 
Den produced the grandest picture of decision of char- 
acter and fidelity to God's law on the human side and 
Jehovah as a promise-keeping God on the divine side, 
the world has ever seen. All of God's work, both 
with individuals and nations, has taught the world 
the best lessons of the divine character. God makes 
the human family a promise and He drives out every 
enemy; paralyses every arm; destroys every nation; 
overturns human governments ; tears the imperial robes 
from kings and princes ; lifts imperial crowns from 



The Scourging of a Race. 23 

their brows, and wrests imperial scepters from their 
hands, in order that angels may sing upon Bethlehem's 
plains, ''Unto you is born this day, in the city of 
David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." 

God looks down upon fair America, the land that 
has taught the world great lessons of liberty and law, 
but whose escutc'heon is blotted by the curse of human 
slavery; he starts a Wendall Phillips, Thad. Stevens, 
Chas. Sumjcier, Wm. Loyd Garrison, Pillsbury, and 
Douglas to speaking and writing. He shakes the 
republic with anti-slavery agitation; he starts other 
forces at work until at last the North and South meet 
in deadly combat and grim visaged war stalks -through 
the land. The country is emptied of princely spirits 
drenched in human blood ; made to tremble like a leaf 
shaken by a mighty wind, until peace is born out of 
the bloody conflict and four milhon slaves burst from 
their thralldom and cry, "Free, free.'' This is the work 
of the Lord and marvelous in His sight. "Not by 
might nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord." 

A broadened vision, so that the church may take in 
the stupendous work of God in the creation of this 
universal fabric and in the preservation of the same. 
A broadened vision is what the twentieth century 
church needs ; passing before it the redemptive work 
of Christ, and emphasizing as well as defining the be- 
liever's relation to the final redemption of the world. 
It is Christ's royal army marching against sin and 
wickedness. She gets her marching orders from the 
Commander-in-Chief of the armies of earth and 
heaven : "Go ye into all the world and preach the gos- 
pel to every creature; he that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved, and he that believeth not, shall be 
damned." 

The churches of this country to-day need a baptism 
of the Holy Spirit; another Pentecostal shower, re- 
moving dead forms ; burning up the stubble of strife 
and enmity ; consuming false pride and vain glory and 



24 The Scourging of a Race, 

charging the whole organization with spiritual elec- 
tricity, until every member shall be wholly alive to 
the interests of Christ's kingdom. Mo.ses saw the 
church a hiirning hush — vernal amidst the flames. If 
the church be a burning bush, it cannot be consumed, 
because God is in it. As it is safe in the fire so it is 
safe in the water. ''God is in the midst of her, she 
shall not be moved." 

The wars and conquests of kings, the ambitions and 
schemes of politicians have all been overruled by Him 
who makes the wrath of man to praise him. The very 
colossal power of the Roman Empire, itself, was made 
subservient to the process by which it was to be 
broken up, and the efficacy of its laws manifested in 
favor of the religion, to which it was inveterately op- 
posed. Little did the Emperor Titus imagine that 
while laying waste the Jewish kingdom, he was raising 
up from its very ruins a kingdom destined speedily 
to overshadow and overthrow his own empire; anid 
lay his proud religon in the dust. The Roman sword, 
intent only on self-glorification, and the pride of con- 
quest, was wielded by the Almighty arm to clear the 
way for the triumphant march of Christianity over 
every nation and kingdom ; and though that sword was 
frequently turned against the church and wrought sad 
havoc among the members, yet each pruning, each 
shoot that it cut off, became a separate living vine, 
extending to other regions, the blessings of the gospel. 

In this way the church grew and spread, until now 
its range extends from sea to sea and from the rivers 
to the ends of the earth. 

Let thy work appear unto thy servant, in the 
mysteries of human redemption. The more we 
study the scheme of redemption the more we 
are entranced with its beauty and lost in its 
wise provisions. The plan of redemption was the de- 
sign of infinite wisdom, born in His infinite mind, 
somewhere in the uncalendared ages of eternity. Its 



The Scourging of a Race, 25 

execution in every detail was left to dying love. ''For 
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
perish, but have everlasting Hfe/' There are two things 
in redemption that are beautiful examples of love — 
Christ died for us, and died for us while we were his 
enemies. Ijife is the first thing that nature desires and 
the last thing it is willing to give up. 

The love of Christ was so full and strong that He 
was willing to give his life to save men. This sacrifice 
was not made of a life that was a failure. It was 
heaven's best gift — the Prince of Glory — God's only 
Son. He who was equal with the father in every. divine 
perfection; who sat in silent and uncreated majesty 
with him, in the impenetrable chambers of eternity 
when redemption's scheme was formed and fashiondd. 
He w^ho came to earth to bring man back to God. To 
uncurtain eternity and reveal to man the inefifable 
splendors of a glorious immortality. Christ came to 
establish a universal empire, which was to crush and 
stamp out every other kingdom, and itself was to live 
until after the death of time and the birth of 
eternity. Daniel called it a rolling stone, cut out of 
the mountains without hands. Jacob saw it in the de- 
parting sceptre and the dispensing lawgiver, and so 
cried, ''The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, or a 
lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come.'' 

Isaiah, the silvery-tongued evangelistic prophet, saw 
it wrapped in the swaddling clothes of new birth, and 
said, "Unto us a child is born, unto vis a son is given." 
Zechariah, just before the close o-f old testament his- 
tory, when the voice of prophecy should be hushed for 
four hundred years, beheld him as the world's cleansing 
fountain and cried, "In that day there shall be a foun- 
tain opened to the house of David and to the inhabi- 
tants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness." And so 
his kingdom has OiUtlived all others. The Assyrian 
Empire, founded by Nimrod, the mighty hunter, con- 



26 The Scourging of a Race, 

tinned 1,400 years. The Persian Empire, whose cor- 
ner-stone was laid by that ambitious and daring 
potentate, Cyrus, continued 200 years. The Grecian 
Empire, the synonym for intellectual and physical 
power; the garden spot of the world for arts and 
science; the one kingdom that stole the witchery of 
earth and sky and gathered them into her enchanted 
palaces; Greece, intrepid and invincible, lasted only 
300 years under the leadership of his imperial majesty, 
Alexander the Great, The Roman Empire, whose 
family once covered the whole earth and whose legions 
struck terror to all nations — Rome, the iron-heeled and 
iron-hearted oppressor, continued a much longer 
period than all her illustrious predecessors, but all 
these have passed away — their ruins only remain to 
tell of their former strength and glory. The kingdom 
of Christ remains the hero, of ten thousand battle- 
fields; unhurt amidst the wreck of matter, unmoved 
before the awful revolutions of time. It is of the head 
of this kingdom that the saintly Jean Paul says, ''Be- 
ing the holiest among the mighty and the mightiest 
among the holy, he Hfted with his pierced hands em- 
pires off their hinges ; turned the streams of centuries 
out of their channels, and still governs the ages/' 

It is He who makes kings toss upon their beds by 
night, and tremble upon their thrones by day. Jesus 
Christ, the wonder of the ages. The world conqueror. 
The King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. 

The life of Christ reveals a character of greater 
massiveness than the everlasting hills ; a character of 
serener beauty than the stars; of sweeter fragrance 
than all the flowers in the garden of God ; hig^her than 
the heavens in sublimity and deeper than the seas in 
mystery. How fulsome and eventful was the mys- 
tery of redemption. He was oppressed with hunger, 
but he fed the thousands in the deserts and declared 
himself the Bread of Life. He was parched zvith thirst, 
yet he met the surging masses as they wended their 



The Scourging of a Race, 27 

way up to the feast and cried, "If any man thirst let 
him come unto me and drink/' He was weary, yet 
he looked the world in the face and said, ''Come unto 
me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give 
thee rest." 

Napoleon I once said : ''Across the chasm of 1,800 
years Jesus Christ made a demand, which is beyond 
all others, difficult to satisfy. He asked that for which 
a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of 
his friends or a father of his children, or a bride of 
her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asked for the 
human heart. He will have it entirely to ihimself. He 
demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His de- 
mand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time 
and space, the soul of man, with all its powers, and 
faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of 
Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience 
that remarkable supernatural love toward Him. This 
phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether be- 
yond the scope of man's creative power. Time, 
the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish 
this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its 
strength nor put a limit to its range. This it is whidh 
proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus 
Christ." 

But the Psalmist goes a step farther. He prays 
for the: transmission of^ divine beauty. "Let 
the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.'' All 
God's works are beautiful, but saints, who are his 
workmianship, are subjects of a holy beauty — ^the 
beauty of holiness. They are comely through the 
comeliness which he puts upon them. 

Conceive of the camp of Israel after they had been 
humbled and taught to fear the Lord their God. Two 
or three thousand godly young people, following Him 
implicitly in the wilderness, and trembling at the idea 
of repeating the iniquities of their fathers. This is a 
sight at which even a wicked prophet was struck with 



28 The Scourging of a Race. 

awe, until he cried, ''How godly are thy tents, O Jacob, 
and thy tabernacles, O Israel.'' Powerful are the 
charms of genuine piety. There is something in it 
that disarms malignity itself and extorts admiration, 
even from those who hate it. Milton represents the 
devil himself, on his approaching paradise, as awed 
by innocence, as staggered; as half inclined to desist 
from his purpose and feeling a kind of remorse, com- 
posed of wickedness and piety. Something like this 
existed in the mind of Balaam. He wandered from 
hill to mountain, seeking for curses, but scattering 
blessings; half inclined to unite with God and con- 
tending with a vain desire to die the death of the 
righteous. 

The beauty of the Lord our God he upon us, in the 
i^ORMATiON 01^ CHRISTIAN CHARACTKR. Christianity 
beautifies human character. It is God's evolutionary 
process by which he brings into prominence the graces 
of the gospel. Its aim is to make men like Christ. 
This is the criterion of Christian living. Beauty de- 
velops as faith and love increases. There is no beauty 
in Christian character where faith and works are 
absent. Grace sheds a lustre upon the soul. Faith 
works by love. It teaches the creature to blot out his 
own name and write the name of God in its stead. 
It transp'orms character; putting strength in the 
place of weakness ; life in the place of death, and in- 
A^esting the soul in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 
It is the touch of faith that makes the soul complete. 

The woman, who with trembling form and finger, 
pressed her way through the crowd, until she laid the 
weight of her finger upon the Master's robe, did not 
stand a complete woman until Christ said, ''Thy faith 
hath made thee whole. Go in peace." Faith is the eye 
of the soul, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit gives 
it light and spiritual discernment. It it seated in the 
•understanding as well as the will. It has an eye to 
see as well as a wing to fly. It transforms character; 



The Scourging of a Race. 29 

revolutionizing thought; creating lofty ideals; lifting 
the soul to heights of spiritual beauty. The Psalmist 
says, on another occasion, in referring to the trans- 
mission of the beauty of the Lord, "He shall cover 
thee with His feathers and under His wings shalt thou 
trust ; His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou 
shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor the 
arrow that flieth by day.'' 

The beauty of the Lord is seen, in the adornment of 
Christian graces. The beautiful thing in the life of 
the man who was possessed with a legion of devils 
was seen in the fact that the demoniac spell had been 
broken, the mental anguish had gone , the physical pain 
had been allayed and the man was seen sitting, clothed 
and in his right mind. 

The beauty of the Lord dignifies character — makes 
it to shine with ineffable splendors , and surpassing 
glory. It is the highest combination of spiritual beauty 
— sublime, magnificent in outline and splendor, fas- 
cinating in its sweep and glory. It is seen in the con- 
secration of life to God; in sacrifice and service. It 
gave to the world the noble army of patriarchs, 
prophets, and apostles — Abraham, Jacob, Moses, 
Elijah, John the Baptist, who stood between the dying 
old and the new-born dispensation, and cried, "I am 
the voice of one crying in the wilderness ;'' the sainted 
John; the intrepid Peter, and the consecrated and 
scholarly Paul. 

It adorned the character of all the great reformers, 
Luther and Calvin, Latimer, Wesley and Whitfield — 
John Howard, the philanthropist, upon whose tomb- 
stone was inscribed, "He lived for others,'' with Clark- 
son, Wilberforce and Buxton — all who lived under the 
shadow of the beauty of the Lord. 

And what shall we say of the consecrated spirits 
who have adorned the pages of church history in 
modern times? The beauty of the Lord upon the 
church means great revivals; large ingathering of 



30 The Scourging of a Race, 

souls; the church compelHng men to accept Christ; 
electrifying men, drawing by its matchless splendor all 
men. Christ said, ''If I be lifted up from the earth, I 
will draw all men unto me." By the beauty of Chris- 
tian life and idoctrine ; by the development of spiritual 
power, and by the proclamation of the gospel, until 
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, 

*'Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run; 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more." 

The earth seems very big to us, but to heavenly 
vision it is only a little stage. And yet that stage is 
the scene of a drama fascinating to cherubim and 
seraphim. The mighty amphitheater of the skies is 
crowded with angels and archangels. They have 
watched with breathless interest the successive scenes. 
They praised the matchless beauty of Eden. They 
shuddered at the tempter and wept at the fall. They 
looked with eagerness as the patriarchs and prophets 
played their parts. They have bdheld with amazement 
and rapture the scene where the Son of God solved 
the problem of salvation. But one thing hinders the 
rolling away as a scroll of the curtain upon the final 
scene. The glorious tableau that John saw of the New 
Jerusalem descending from the skies, is delayed by one 
thing. The myriads of seraphic beings who throng 
celestial seats wait but for one thing, to burst into 
an alleluia chorus of angelic song. But one thing. 
The gospel must first be preached to every creature. 

I have somewhere seen related the following incident 
in connection with one of the battles of the war of the 
rebellion. An army was moving out on its first cam- 
paign to its first battle. The men had marched all 
day across tracts of burning sand and had waded many 
streams. Many had fallen out by the way-— even 
horses had failed. They had cheered their weary 



The Scourging of a Race, 31 

march with army songs. But as evening draws on, 
completely worn out, diey hear the boom of the cannon 
in their front; the battle is on. The men, unaccus- 
tomed to such 'hardships and such sounds, thinking of 
home, are completely discouraged and disheartened. 
The general and his officers note with alarm the state 
of the army. Something must be done to cheer these 
men. The general with a colonel comes riding rapidly 
up to one who was accustomed to lead the singing of 
the regiment, and cries out, "For heaven's sake, sing 
something to cheer the boys.'' But what could he 
sing? They had sung and grown weary of all their 
army songs. Coronation flashed upon his mind, and 
he began, ''All hall, the power of Jesus' name." With 
lightning speed it flew up and down the ranks, from 
regiment to regiment, till the entire army was singing 
that grand old song. 

It rose up into the heavens and it seemed as though 
the God of battles was marshaling the angels and send- 
ing them down the sky to fight his cause. Everything 
was instantly changed. The discouraged and disheart- 
ened felt the inspiration of a new and mighty Hfe swell- 
ing in their veins. With dauntless and invincible cour- 
age they sprang forward to the dreadful conflict, and 
that evening won their first victory and crowned once 
more the old flag with glory. Is the army of the Lord 
discouraged and disheartened by the hardships of the 
way? Let us, then, my brethren, in the faith of all 
the bright promises of the word of God, seeking in the 
full manifestation of the divine power through the 
operations of His holy spirit, cheer on the lagging, 
trembling host by exalting that name that is above 
every name, and calling upon all the world to put the 
crown of universal empire on His brow, and to place 
the scepter of all authority in His pierced right hand. 



32 The Scoiirgiiig of a Race. 



The Wheels of Providence. 



Preached at the Dedication of the Union Baptist Church, New 
Bedford, Hass., Rev. C. H. HcDonald, D. D., Pastor, 1900. 



"A wheel in the middle of a wheel." — Bzek, i, i6. 

Ezekiel prophesied in the land of captivity; the land 
of darkness and oppression. He enjoyed an office of 
two-fold distinction — prophet and priest. He far 
excels the rest of the prophetic school, in the variety 
and copiousness of his visions, images, and parables. 
He exihausted every mode of prophetic diction. His 
imagery is at times beautiful, inspiring, bold, and 
dreadful; his sentiment fervid and elevated; his lan- 
guage, pompous, austere, and solemn. 

Our text forms a part of a magnificent introductory 
to ithe prophecy. Here we have a vision of the glory 
of God; his attendance and retinue in the heavenly 
world, where His throne is surrounded with angels 
called the living creatures. 

We cannot grasp the deep spiritrul motive of the 
prophet without giving more than a passing glance at 
the sublime characters that constitute this heavenly 
vision. That he might see clearly eternity was un- 
curtained ; the darkness and distance that obscured his 
sight were conquered and he was let into the light of 
the glories of the New Jerusalem. 

A mighty whirlwind, loosened from its hiding place 
in 'the north, became the vehicle which conveyed this 
celestial revelation to the prophet. A great cloud, ac- 
companied by a fire — ^the fire of God's glory bursting 



The Scourging of a Race. 33 

in divine effulgence, but quickly infolding itself and 
displaying a brightness as the color of amber. 

And out of this rolling cloud, with its amber bor- 
dering,, this shaft of intermixed cloud and fire that 
bespoke the glory and majesty of Jehovah, the like- 
ness of four living creatures stepped, each appearing 
as a man ; each with four faces, that of a lion, an ox, 
and an eagle, as well as a man. 

They had the face of a man, to denote intelligence 
and understanding; the face of a lion to denote 
strength and courage; the face of an ox to denote 
patience and diligence, and the face of an eagle to de- 
note quickness of action; piercing insight as well as 
exalted and high residential qualities in the work be- 
fore them. 

Tiheir wings, four in number, were fitted to fly 
swiftly upon errands of love and mercy. These wings 
were joined together to show how perfectly unani- 
mous they are to honor and glorify God. 

Let an angel receive the least intimation of the 
divine will and he is on the wing immediately, ready 
to do heaven's high and holy behests. They had wings 
for motion, but hands for action. The hands of a 
man, wonderfully made, and fitted for service guided 
by reason and understanding. 

Whatever service they went about, ''they went every- 
one straight forv/ard," not turning to the right or 
left; not deterred nor hindered by obstacles, no mat- 
ter how mighty in number and power. ''They went 
straight forward.'' Angel messengers in matters of 
providence and redemption. 

When enwrapted in wonder and delight, the prophet 
saw "one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures," 
in appearance and work like the color of the sea — 
sea-green, beryl in color. In their operations they 
appeared as "a wheel in the middle of a wheel.'' This 
brings us to consider "The Wheels of Providence/' 

Providence, or God's dealings with nations and in- 



34 The Scourging of a Race, 

dividuals, is here compared to a wheel. In its effect 
upon mankind, providence seems ever changing; at 
one time we are on top of the wheel and at another at 
the bottom. No man stands in one place. God has 
in us all a wise and beneficent purpose to accomplish. 

Sometimes the providence of God seems to be ''a 
wheel in the middle of a wheel.'' The disposals of 
providence often seem intricate, perplexing and un- 
accountable. 

* * God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform ; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm." 

''His ways are often in the sea and his footsteps are 
not known." This is because the scheme of provi- 
dence, unlike creation, is not yet complete. Like the 
wheels, it is ever moving ; making its revolutions ; leav- 
ing its record of wisdom and mercy, wherever its 
course is taken. 

Take a man to a house -where the architect and 
builder are in the middle of the plan. There are half- 
built walls ; arches half sprung ; rooms without doors ; 
or plastering; or paint. All seems disorder to the 
looker on, but to the architect, who has the plan all 
in his eye, there is no disorder; but perfect harmony. 
So man stands amidst the vast scheme of providence, 
which God began over six thousand years ago. 

Raised to Egypt's throne, Joseph saw why God per- 
mitted him to be sold into slavery, cast into a pit, and 
committed to prison. 

Raised to our present exalted place in the civiliza- 
tion of the world, the Negro race sees why God per- 
mitted our forefathers to be stolen from their native 
land and plunged into the darkness and despair of 
American slavery, the curse of which haunts us like a 
grim spectre, until this very moment. 

Raised to your present peace and prosperity, you see 



The Scourging of a Race, 35 

why in your individual life, some heartrending sorrow 
ploughed your soul; brought the hot tears to your 
eyes and made you rock upon your beds at night, like 
a foundered ship upon the angry storm-lashed ocean. 
And raised to heaven, looking back upon God's 
dealings with us, we see that there was not a turn in 
the road; nor a crook in our lot; not a mountain or 
plain ; nor a river or stream, that God has not made a 
blessing to-day. O yes. It is a wheel in the middle 
of a wheel. 

''Blind unbelief is sure to err 
And scan her work in vain; 
God is His own interpreter, 
And He will make it plain." 

The wheels of a clock move contrary, some one way 
and some another, yet all serve their purpose, to show 
what time it is. So providence may seem to run con- . 
trary, bringing clouds before sunshine; storm before 
calm; sorrow before joy; death before life. The 
wicked prosper like the green bay tree ; the oppressor 
of the hireling lavishes himself in luxury, while the 
righteous seem forsaken and alone, with nothing but 
poverty and want as their part, but out of it all God 
brings a wise result, so that we cry, ''All things work 
together for good to them that love God, to them who 
are the called according to his purpose." 

The wisdom, justice, truth, and goodness of God's 
providence is denoted by the exquisite workmanship 
and beautiful color of the wheels. The color was 
that of the deep sea. The sea ebbs and flows, so does 
providence. Not all sunshine, but an occasional cloud. 
Not always robust health, but an occasional day of 
sickness. Not always prosperity, but the blighting, 
withering adversity, and then we better appreciate the 
thing we lost for a while. 

"Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like the toad, ugly 

and venomous, 
Yet wears a pr-ecious jewel in its head." 



36 The Scourging of a Race, 

Prosperity does not always lead to God. Some- 
times plenty and prosperity are the thief that robs us 
of heaven. Adam in paradise, basking in the smiles 
of his God, was overcome; while Job on the dung- 
hill, forsaken by friends and afflicted by God, was a 
conqueror. 

It is recorded that a certain rich man refused the 
crumbs that fell from his table to a starving and af- 
flicted beggar, and the same record has this to say of 
the rich man : ''In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in 
torment, saying, Father Abraham, send Lazurus, that 
he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool 
my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." 

The wheel had four faces, looking in every direction. 
God's providence applies to everybody and everything, 
from the new-born babe, whose first cry announces its 
advent into the world, to the old man, leaning upon 
his staff; from the golden sand grain, sleeping upon 
the seashore, to the highest mountain range, whose 
rugged peaks lose themselves in ethereal heights or 
draw around them the garments of perpetual winter. 

It applies to the countless army of human beings 
who tread this earth, with all their multiplied and 
different wants, as well as to the individual need of 
one man, who stands fearfully and wonderfully made. 
How vast the field ! 

His providence, looking in all directions, knows 
our needs ; sees every obstacle that arises in the way, 
and therefore is never taken by surprise. In the gov- 
ernment of God, nothing happens ; everything is known 
beforehand. We need not complain and say : ''Lord, 
if you had known my condition, you would have 
helped me.'' All emergencies, conditions, necessities, 
sweep before the all-seeing eye of God ; all come under 
the unbounded government of God and are controlled 
according to his good pleasure. 

God's eye is ever upon us. David cried, "Whither 
shall I go from thy spirit? Or, whither shall I flee 



The Scoiirgmg of a Race, 37 

from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou 
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art 
there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell 
in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy 
hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Yea, 
darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth 
as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike 
to thee.'' ' 

And again: ''Thou knowest our downsitting and 
our uprising; thou understandest our thoughts afar 
off." 

The wheels were full of eyes, looking for the care 
an'd help of the saints ; anxious to supply wants and 
give peace and protection. They never sleep, but are 
alw^ays fixed upon us. They see the good and the bad, 
in human conduct. One night a father took his son 
to assist him in stealing some goods from a neighbor. 
He told the boy to watch and see that no one was 
looking. The boy looked in every direction and re- 
ported that no one was around to see. ''But,'' said 
he, "father, you forgot to look up and see whether God 
is looking." So men are busy thinking of their fel- 
lows, but do not stop to remember that God's eyes 
are upon them. 

We ought to rejoice that no matter where we are 
God's providence is extended to us. No matter what 
our condition, we never escape the wheel of providence 
that is full of eyes. O the rich provisions of God's 
providence! Ftill of eyes. Always looking, in dark- 
ness and light, in sunshine and shadow, in prosperity 
and adversity, in life and death. Every tear drop that 
burns its way down the cheek in the hour of sorrow ; 
every sigh that escapes the soul, under the withering 
touch of affliction; every scheme set in motion to do 
us harm; ever}^ dark and devilish weapon formed to 
hurt and destroy, is seen by providence and is made 
to fail. 

The wheels of providence turned and a Daniel was 



38 The Scourging of a Race. 

imprisoned in the lion's den, but the eyes of provi- 
dence were fixed upon each hungry beast, and so 
cowered and controlled them that it is recorded that 
no harm was done the man of God. 

The righteous soul is often thrown among lions. 
They open itheir jaws and paw the earth, impatient to 
drink its life blood, but God's eye is upon us, his 
promise stands secure. 

We may fall very low, but we never fall below the 
promises of God. They are ever before Him. He 
keeps them as the apple of his eye. The promises of 
God are built upon four things : God's justice and 
holiness, which will not suffer Him to deceive; His 
grace or goodness, which will never suffer Him to 
forget; His truth, which keeps Him from changing; 
and his power, which makes him able to accomplish 
what He pledges. 

''They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
strength." '*I will never leave thee, nor forsake 
thee." '* He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, 
in seven, there shall no evil touch thee." 



The Scourging of a Race. 39 



The Coming of Shiloh. 

1\ i^l55ION7\RY 5ERnON. 



Delivered at the South Side Rappahannock Baptist, Associa- 
tion, Virginia, Julv 23, 1597. 



**The scepter shall not depart from Judah ; nor a lawgiver 
from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the 
gathering of the people h^.^'—Gen, xlix, 10, 

We have in this chapter the closing scenes of an 
eventful life ; a father's benediction upon his children 
and a beautiful and inspiring prophecy of the pre- 
cedency, permanency, and prosperity of the ancient 
and historic tribe of Judah. 

Jacob, the central figure of the scene unfolded, stands 
upon the threshold of eternity ; around his dying bed 
the powers of the world to come array themselves and 
there falls upon him the breath of clear, exalted 
prophecy. 

From the shadows of his own approaching end his 
vision swept along the unborn ages, until in prophetic 
foresight, he beheld his own race, clothed with royalty 
and dominant over all others. He saw the hand of 
providence, setting apart Judah, as the conservator of 
a vital knowledge of God, through all the ages, and 
clothed with this prophetic authority exclaims : ''The 
'Sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver 
from between his feet until Shiloh come, and unto him 
shall 'the gathering of the people be.'' 

This is one of the most sublime prophecies ever ut- 
tered. It contains 



40 The Scourgifig of a Race, 

A re:vi:i.ation oi? christ. 

The term Shiloh signifies the tranquiHzer, the giver 
of peace, a title that pre-eminently belonged to Him 
that was to establish peace on earth and good will to 
men and whose kingdom was to be a reign of peace 
between God and man — man the rebel and oflfender 
and God the oflfended. 

This coming Shiloh was to be the central personage, 
that was to bring about this happy and beneficent con- 
dition of things, and was to give to the world all the 
prestige, humanly speaking, that a racial connection 
with Judajh could give to him. 

An exalted humanity was the divine method of plac- 
ing Christ within intimate reach of men. A hu- 
manity perfectly free from the withering touch of 
sin and yet able to meet every claim of the law. 

Christ was no less a man because he was God; His 
divinity was one element, his humanity another; and 
yet both were necessary to a successful establishment 
of his claims upon men. As a man he must be able 
to sympathize and comfort; to be tempted and over- 
come, for ''He was tempted in all points, Hke as we.'' 

His humanity was real, not a mere shadowy form, 
but a real body, subject to all the physical conditions 
to which mankind must conform. His life was one long 
martyrdom for humanity. He died daily. Every hour 
had its cross for him. As a man, upon whose heart 
rested responsibilities like his, his life was a perpetual 
and systematic self-denial of appetites, natural tastes, 
selfish incHnations and personal hopes and fears. 

In order to meet the demands of the law, he must 
possess such a body; for no intermediate nature, such 
as the demigods the heathen were supposed to pos- 
sess, no immaterial existence, could ''magnify the law 
and make it honorable." He is called by the silvery- 
tongued Isaiah, "The Prince of Peace,'' because his 
government subdues the turbulent passions of men, 



The Scourging of a Race. 41 

and promotes peace in the world ; by Him all that be- 
lieve have peace with God, their minds are kept in 
perfect peace and peaceable dispositions predominate 
their whole lives. 

The estabHshment of a kingdom ipon such far- 
reaching and heaven-blessed principles ; the settlement 
of the claims of divine justice and the amicable ar- 
rangement of all difficulties between man and man, 
was to the dying Patriarch an inspiration and joy 
forever, and so from the^ depths of his loyalty to God 
and race, with his patriarchal eye fixed upon the rapid 
developments of the future, born of divine inspiration, 
of Judah's ultimate glorification, he exclaims, ''The 
sceptre shall not depart from Judah, not a lawgiver 
from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto 
Him shall the gathering of the people be/' 

He must be a mediator, a middleman, an advocate, 
and so must understand, not by observation, but by 
actual experience, the true condition of the parties for 
whom he advocates. 

And so he was to stand, with one hand upon the 
throne of God, and the other outstretched to a sinful 
w^orld saying, '* Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Drawing 
by his spotless character, and the power of the gospel, 
he preached all men to him. 

His divinity was potential in permanently fixing this 
reign of peace. As a teacher of religion He claimed 
to be superior to all others. No other system had yet 
thrown a clear and distinct light upon the great be- 
yond. He was to establish an immortality beyond the 
grave ; not only to reconcile man to God, for time, but 
to throw open the gates of everlasting life. 

Go to your natural religion. Lay before her Ma- 
homet and his disciples arrayed in armor and blood, 
riding in triumph over the thousands and tens of thou- 
sands who fell by his victorious sword. Show her the 
cities which he set in flames, the countries ravaged and 



42 The Scourging; of a Race, 

destroyed, and the miserable distress of all the inhabi- 
tants of the earth. 

When she has gazed upon this scene, carry her 
within the retirement of his private life. Point out 
his wives and concubines; his seasons of revelry and 
dissipation; his adulterous yielding, and hear him al- 
lege divine revelation and his divine commission to 
justify his lust and oppression. 

This is the exponent of Mohammedanism, who de- 
clared: ''There is one God, and Mahomet is His 
prophet." 

Then view Jesus, humble and meek, doing good to 
all the sons of men, patiently instructing the ignorant 
and leading the perverse into paths of righteousness 
and peace. 

Let the sceptic and infidel look into his private life : 
follow him to the mount and hear his devotions and 
supplications to God; see his table and view his poor 
fare ; hear him in the midst of poverty exclaim, "The 
foxes have boles, and the birds of the air have nests, 
but the son of man hath not where to lay his head.'' 

See him injured, but not provoked ; consider the 
patience with which He bore the scoffs and reproaches 
of His enemies. Lead the devotee of human systems 
of religion to Christ's cross. Let him view Him in 
the agonies of gleath, and hear His last prayer for His 
persecutors, ''Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do." 

When the sceptic, infidel, scoffer, and wordling have 
placed ]\Iahomet on one side, with his carnage and 
lust, and Christ on the other with His spotless char- 
acter, ask him, ''Which is the prophet of God?" and 
he will borrow the Centurion's language as the honest 
expression of his heart, "Trulv, this man was the Son 
of God." 

If men doubted, they had only to hear Him speak 
to the diseased and their strengthened limbs told that 
its grasp had been loosened ; or see the sightless eyes 



The Scourgi?ig of a Race, 43 

of the blind opened, or hear the tongue of the dumb 
sing. 

Did not the winds and waves obey his voice? Could 
the grave hold its lifeless inmate, when he commanded 
the dead to arise? No, as a God he speaks, and 
"great nature's wheels stand still,'' its fiercest elements 
calm and crouch at His feet like a whipped spaniel, 
while heaven, earth, and hell are the silent witnesses 
of the scene. He speaks, and at the sound of his voice 
the whole earth trembles. It is the voice of the Sov- 
ereign of the Skies ; it is the Mighty God, the Supreme 
Ruler of the Universe, the One whose fiat gave form 
to universal existence, and whose omnific arm 'holds a 
boundless creation in its sphere. 

By His power every atom that floats in the air; 
every fiery world that revolves through trackless 
ethereal realms keeps its course, and nations, kin- 
dreds, peoples, and tongues bow in humble reverence 
at His command, exclaiming: ''Thou doest as thou 
wiliest in the kingdom of iheaven and among the in- 
habitants of the earth, and no man can say what doest 
thou." 

He needs no instruments, no mechanical aid, no 
series of contrivances to assist in the exercise of His 
will. He commands and the thing is done, whether it 
be the production of an animalcule, the creation of a 
world, or the launching of a planet in its orbit. 

A vast creation hangs upon his omnific finger to be 
preserved or destroyed ; the earth is his footstool ; the 
heavens his sovereign abode, and eternity the imperial 
court from which he thunders his decrees for the 
obedience of his subjects. "Lo these are part of his 
ways, but the thunder of His power, who can under- 
stand?" 

We have an emphatic announcement as to the time 
of the coming of Shiloh. 

''The sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a 
lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh oome, and 



44 The Scourgijig of a Race, 

unto him shall the gathering of the people be/' This 
was a staff which kings, governors, and rulers, held 
in their hands as emblems of authority. It was trans- 
mitted from father to son, and thus kept within the 
family. So Jacob declared, this kingly authority or 
ru'le should not depart from the tribe of Judah, until 
Shiloh, the ]\Iessiah, should come. 

Homer mentions the sceptre and shows how it passed 
from father to son, in his description of Agamemnon's 
address to the army : 

'^The king of kings his awful figure raised, 
High in his hand the golden sceptre blazed; 
The golden sceptre of celestial fame, 
By Vulcan formed, from Jove to Hermes came. 
To Pelops, he the immortal gift resigned. 
The immortal gift great Pelops left behind.'^ 

Here is the dying Jacob, lifted to the height of 
prophetic vision, declaring Judah's sceptre should re- 
imain in Judah's hands till Shiloh came. 

It is a historical fact that each tribe of Israel had a 
rod and each man his name written on it. These rods, 
corresponding in number to the number of the tribes, 
were laid away by ]\Ioses in the tabernacle, when it 
was discovered in the morning that Aaron's had 
iDudded ; hence it was intended to convey the idea that 
the tribe of Judah should continue in the exercise of 
its tribal authority till the coming of the ]\Iessiah. 

In this sense, every tribe had a sceptre and the 
promise that Judah's should remain, implies that all 
others should depart. History declares that Judah 
never lost his tribe ; the greatest care was taken by 
•every succeeding generation to preserve it. 

In the days of Saul and David when Israel was 
numbered, the tribe of Judah was counted separate 
from the rest. (/ Sam. xi, 8.) 

Prophets were employed to recorA the genealogies 
of this tribe under the Kings. (// Chron, xii, 15; and 
jciii, 22,) And the same care was exercised during 



The Scourging of a Race. ' 45 

the captivity in Babylon and while a large portion of 
the other tribes did not return to the land of their 
fathers, Judah returned with its integrity unbroken 
and so remained until the end of time; the whole land 
and nation receiving its name from Judah, the one 
being called ''J^ws" and the other ''J^dea/' So the 
tribal constitution did not depart until the predicted 
era. 

Till the captivity, through David's time, the sceptre 
was in Judah and so remained till Judea became a 
Roman province, at the time of the birth of Jesus. At 
this time Joseph and ]\Iary, the mother of Jesus, went 
into Judea to pay taxes and the child Jesus was born. 
An exact fulfillment of the prophecy contained in the 
text. The sceptre had departed and Shiloh had come. 

Prophecy uttered 1,689 years before, had been ful- 
filled and another evidence was given that Jehovah 
purposed to keep His promise made in Eden's garden, 
that ''The seed of the woman should bruise the ser- 
pent's head." 

When God speaks the world should listen. He 
makes no mistakes in carrying out the affairs of His 
kingdom. He cannot fail. He alone has the power 
to command and marshals the forces visible and in- 
visible to put his commands into effect. 

Generations lengthened into centuries and centuries 
multiplied themselves by themselves before this 
prophecy was fulfilled. God's armies fought upon 
many a battlefield, painted many a hill and valley 
crimson with human blood. Patriarchies became king- 
doms, kingdoms became empires, and empires re- 
publics and states before the sceptre passed from Judah 
or the lawgiver from between his feet, and so God's 
church waits to-day for the ultimate fufillment of every 
prophecy concerning the kingdom of Christ. Noth- 
ing will be left out, every detail will be met, every 
enemy overcome, and victory will perch upon Zion's 
banners, while the heavens will clap their hands in 



46 ' The Scourging of a Race, 

joy and earth will send up against the vaulted dome the 
cry that the foe is vanquished, and universal peace and 
joy reigns supremely among all nations. 

The regal authority retained in Judah, the dispenser 
or interpreter of divine jurisprudence, sitting between 
the feet of Him who thundered from Sinai's smoking 
heights, the law for the government of men, it only 
remained to see. 

Its effect upon the world. '' Unto him shall the 
gathering of the people be." 

The patriarch saw Shiloh's standard raised and 
thronging millions coming and swearing allegiance to 
its powers. It was a mighty stretch of prophetic 
vision; a beautiful tribute to the power of Emanuers 
reign to see the people, irrespective of official, social 
or racial standing, flocking to the standard of the 
cross. 

All these results were to be reached only through 
one medium — the Gospel. Christ reflected it in his 
life among .men ; it burned in every word he uttered ; 
was the most prominent feature in his every act, and 
the crown of glory in his whole life. He set the ball 
in motion, and declared that no pow^r should ever be 
formed, no weapen created, no combination of enemies, 
however strong, should stop its revolutions. 

The glorious Gospel. Before He ascended He gave 
His disciples their marching orders : ''Go ye into all 
the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." 
The church must conquer all worlds by this commis- 
sion. She has no other authority, and wants none. 
The holding up of Shiloh among the nations of earth 
until a universal reHgion shall gather the nations to 
its standard. ''Unto him shall the gathering of the 
people be." 

This is no wild statement ; it is a positive decree of 
the Infinite God. We live in an age where there are 
many signs of the gathering people. The story of 
Christ's life and death and (resurrection is read and 



The Scourging of a Race, 47 

preached and sung in more than two hundred of the 
world's languages to-day. 

The bells of Christian churches ring out upon the 
air and call a living host of Christians to bow at the 
feet of Shiloh, whose sceptre is righteousness, and 
who shall have dominion from sea to sea and from 
the rivers to the ends of the earth. 

The sea of commerce is covered with white-winged 
messengers, bearing to heathen nations the mission- 
aries of the cro'ss and inviting those who sit in darkness 
and in the regions of despair to shake ofif their heathen 
Hfe and swear allegiance to Calvary's cross. 

The Gospel of Christ has shown its power over 
every phase of man's existence — individuals, nations — 
over humanity itself. 

It changed Paul, the persecutor, into Paul, the 
zealous missionary and martyr for the truth he once 
despised; it caught John Newton, the slave trader, 
in its grasp and turned him to a Christian poet and 
preacher; it sent its arrows deep into John Bunyan's 
heart and brought him forth in defense of truth ; and 
thus gave to the world the ''immortal dreamer" of 
* 'Pilgrim s Progress." 

It seized Luther, in the depths of Roman Catholic 
corruption and sin, taught him the evangelical lesson 
that the just should live by faith, and gave the world 
the intrepid reformer, the prince of preachers. 

It has lifted the king's crown from his imperial 
brow and consecrated him to God's service ; the pro- 
found intellect has bowed at its feet ; the cringing slave 
secured perfect freedom, and 

"The weary found eternal rest, 
While all the sons of want are blest." 

The Gospel has set the world to thinking and kept 
it thinking during all the centuries. It stirs up men's 
souls; opens their eyes; unfetters their limbs, and 
makes the tongue of the dumb to sing. 



48 The Scourging of a Race. 

And so Shiloh must continue to reign, penetrating 
all things, shaping human history, standing behind 
and ruHng thrones, quickening men to lead lives of 
virtue and consecrate their best talent to a cordial 
service of the Master. 

''Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be." 

What an inspiring picture presented itself to Jacob's 
enlightened vision. He saw the world a vast and mag- 
nificent temple; its foundations set upon the pillars of 
the universe, while its dome, covered with the draperies 
of millennial glory, gave shelter to the gathering mul- 
titudes that had come to lay their trophies at the feet 
of (Shiloh) Zion's King. 

It was extended from pole to pole, for says Isaiah, 
''Many shall say, come let us go up to the house of 
the Lord, and He shall teach us of His ways and we 
will walk in His paths." 

He saw the worshiping hosts as they bowed in 
silent reverence at Shiloh's feet, in token of their 
willing submission to His authority. 

The picture delights my soul. See the prince and 
peasant, the fine linen and purple, pressed against the 
beggar's rags ; the giant intellect beside the ignorant 
fool; the social queen beside society's outcast; a Mary 
Magdalene by a Queen of Sheba ; a Lazarus and a 
Dives ; the capitalist and laborer ; the master -and slave ; 
the strong and the weak; the great and the small — 
all take their places in this universal temple, where 
the gathering of the people should be. 

Here stand the sable sons of Africa, enlightened, 
redeemed, saved by the blood of the Lamb; the Brah- 
min from India's burning strand ; the Confuscian from 
the greatest and oldest empire on earth, whose popula- 
tion is one-third the population of the whole world, 
but she, too, brings her worshipers to Zion's temple, 
and bows at Shiloh's feet; the Mohammedan from 
Africa, the Buddhist of Asia, the Rom'anist of Italy, 
the Indian from North America, and every false re- 



The Scourging of a Race, 49 

ligionist among men, all stand in that sacred place and 
with united voice, ascribe honor and praise to Em- 
manuel. 

Let the church of God help to bring about this 
happy time. For says Isaiah, ''It shall come to pass 
that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be estab- 
lished upon the top of the mountains, and shall be ex- 
alted above the hills and all nations shall flow into it." 

"And they shall beat their swords into plough shares 
and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not 
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more." 



go The Scourging of a Race, 

A Throne of Glory. 



Preached before the Harvland Baptist State Convention, 1902. 



And behold a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the 
throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a Jasper and 
a Sardine Stone ; and there was a rainbow round and about 
The throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about 
the throne were four and twenty seats and upon the seats 
/ saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiments, 
and they had on their heads crowns of gold. — Rev. iv, 2-4. 

The apostle introduces us to a scene which we recog- 
nize as the glorious audience-chamber of a great King. 
Everything indicates majestic royalty and unlimited 
power. The King's messengers numbering ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, 
are flitting with lightning celerity upon errands of 
love and mercy, ready to do His Miajesty's will, if it 
be the destruction of a world or the raising of an 
anthem at the birth of a new era of righteousness in 
the affairs of men. 

They wait in awful silence and obedience, looking 
up into the face of Him v^ho sitteth upon the throne^ 
their angelic breasts heaving with anxiety, and upon 
their faces enthroned inexpressible joy, at being so 
near tihe throne of Him ; at whose mighty fiat worlds 
whirl into existence, empires and kingdoms are dis- 
solved, and all time crouches like a whipped spaniel 
at His feet, to do His high and lofty behests. The 
great white throne sits back amidst awful flashes of 
lightning and dreadful thunder. 

"There the Almighty Father sits * * * 

High throned .above all height, 

About Him all the sanctities of heaven 

Stood thick as stars, and from His sight received 

Beatitude past utterance." 



The Scourging of a Race, 51 

It sits in eternity. Not amidst the withered scenes 
of earth; not amidst the blasted hopes of Eden; nor 
the cinerous ruins of a smoking world, but a ''throne 
set in heaven/' 

"O beauteous God ! 
Thy throne is seated far above the highest star, 
Where thou preparest a glorious place 
Within 'the brightness of thy face, 
For every spirit to inherit 
That builds his hope upon thy merit." 

''A throne set in heaven/' In the immediate pres- 
ence of the uncreated Majesty; in heaven amidst the 
blood-bought and white-robed throng, who bow con- 
tinually before His throne and cry : ''Thou art worthy 
to receive riches and honor and praise, because thou 
hast redeemed us out of every nation and people and 
made us kings and priests unto our God/' 

The apostle peeps under the curtained eternity. His 
mighty sweep of beatific vision revealed to him "the 
things that must come to pass hereafter/' 

He is represented as sitting upon a throne — an atti- 
tude of supremacy and dignity. The earth bows be- 
fore Him in reverential awe and receives His com- 
mands; angels prostrate themselves at His feet, and 
burn with angelic zeal to do His high and holy will; 
seraphim veil their faces, in deep humility and adoring 
praise, ready to fly with lightning wings on errands 
of peace and joy. 

"Angels in all their robes of light 

Are made the servants of His throne. 
Before His feet their armies wait, 

And swift as flames of fire they move 
To .manage His affairs of state, 

In works of vengeance and of love. 
His orders run through all their hosts. 

Legions descend at His command, 
To shield and guard His people's coasts, 

When foreign rage invades the land." 



52 The Scourging of a Race, 

He is represented as sitting upon a throne, an atti- 
tude of perfect security. No conspiracy to revolu- 
tionize His kingdom; no rebellion to overthrow law 
and order ; no armies, however strong, can ever shake 
His throne. Time records the rise and fall of king- 
doms and empires; the flourish and decay of mighty 
republics; the crash of revolutions; the blasting of 
human character; the failure of the best laid schemes 
of men; the wreck of ambition, and the utter and 
absolute destruction of everything that is the product 
of human genius. But no time, with its devastation 
and death, can ever shake the throne of Him ''who 
weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a 
balance.'' 

It is the seat of honor. Is it not He who out of 
chaotic confusion l3rought light and order and system? 
Is it not He who holds a boundless creation in the 
hollow of His hand and weighs towering mountains 
in scales and all the hills in a balance, while He com- 
prehends the dust of the earth as nothing? What 
are earth's mightiest to Him? What cares He for 
great navies and mighty armies? With one sweep of 
His omnific arm He can relegate all that man calls 
greatest into sure destruction and leave the products 
of their best genius smouldering ruins at His feet. 

It is the seat of authority. He issues His decrees, 
and all of earth must obey. He alone knows the end 
from the beginning. No weapon formed against Him 
can fulfill its mission, without His notice. He knows 
the power of the enemy and brings to bear upon them 
a greater one until they are destroyed. 

How vast his territory ! Embracing the millions of 
human beings who tread the earth, with all their 
grades — kings, princes, and common people. Embrac- 
ing men of every age — past, present, and future. 
Surely the earth is as nothing in His sight. His au- 
thority clothes the lily in beauty and fills the flower- 
petal with fragrance, as well as sets bounds to old 



The Scourging of a Race, 53 

ocean, saying, ''So far shalt thou go and no farther, 
and here let thy proud waves be stayed/' His au- 
thority stands in eternal vigilance, those rugged sen- 
tinels whose hoary heads bathe themselves in the 
supernal splendors of the morning and shaking their 
shaggy locks, throw kisses to the rising sun. 

It is divine authority that places the stars like dia- 
monds set in a royal diadem; that courses the sun 
from its oriental chamber across the heavens until it 
passes through the Hesperian gates, in obedience to 
heaven's will. 

It is the seat of judgment. Here Jehovah sits and 
dispenses justice to nations as well as individuals. No 
matter 'how great His mercy, justice must be meted to 
all. Not a single soul shall escape. All must give an 
account. The mighty Judge appears in the judicial 
robes of inflexible justice. His eyes flashing flames of 
fire, that pierce the soul and disturb the guilty con- 
science ; his voice like the roar of many waters, being 
heard in all the vast assembly that stands before Him. 
Three worlds hang, in breathless silence upon His 
eternal judgment — heaven, earth, and hell. 

''How awful is the sight, 

How loud the thunders roar; 
The sun forbears to give its light, 

And stars are seen no more." 

The judgments of God are the unchangeable law of 
His being. Nothing can shake them. When he says, 
''The soul that sinneth, it shall die," he announces the 
unchanging consequences of sin and emphasizes the 
reward of a sinner. 

When He says, "He that believeth upon the Son 
hath eternal life," He sets forth the hope of the be- 
liever, for the gift of God is eternal life. There can be 
no appeal. He is the judge of all the earth and his 
judgments are just. The holiness and justice of His 
nature prevents His being impartial to any. 



54 'The Scourging of a Race. 

He could not excuse sin under any circumstances, 
and yet maintain His infinite perfections as a God. 
He sitteth upon the seat oi judgment. All the world 
passes before Him in silent awe, and upon each He 
pronounces the sentence that must fix his destiny as 
long as eternity makes its revolutions. 

Life, death, and hell, and worlds unknown 

Hang on His firm decree; 
He sits on no precarious throne, 

'Nor borrows leave to be. 
His providence unfolds a book, 

In which His counsels shine ; 
Each opening leaf and every stroke 

Fulfills some deep design. 
Chained on His throne a volume lies, 

With all the fates of men. 
With ever}^ angel's form and size. 

Drawn by the eternal pen. 
Here He exalts neglected worms 

To sceptres and a crown. 
And then the following page He turns 

And treads the .monarch down. 
Not Gabriel asks the reason why. 

Nor God the reason gives ; 
Nor dares the favorite angel pry 

Between the folded leaves. 

But the enraptured apostle beholds the throne en- 
circled by a rainbow. ''And there was a rainbow 
round and about the throne.'' 

The emblem of the eternal covenant of grace God 
makes with the souls of men. 

In the infancy of the world, when God had destroyed 
the living of earth by the waters of the flood, He made 
a covenant with Noah that should stand forever. He 
said : ''This is the token of the covenant which I make 
between me and you and every living creature that is 
with you for perpetual generations. I do set my bow 
in the clouds and it shall be for a token of a covenant 
between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass 
when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow 



The Scourging of a Race. 55 

shall be seen in the cloud and I will remember my 
covenant, which is between me and you and every 
living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no 
more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the 
bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that 
I may remember the everlasting covenant between 
God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon 
the earth;' 

So God makes an eternal covenant with the re- 
deemed of earth. He says : ''I give unto them eternal 
life and they shall never perish." "Him that overcometh 
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he 
shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the 
name of my God and the name of the city of my God, 
which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of 
heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my 
new name." 

Every believer has entered into this eternal covenant 
relationship with God. /\nd when he thinks of his 
Redeemer, he remembers that his redemption is for- 
ever sure, for there is a "rainbow," a seal and token 
of his redemption, "round and about the throne." 

To no class of people has God committed himself 
like the redeemed. He keeps them as "the apple of 
His eye," and "under the shadow of His wing." He 
walls around them a wall of fire, and says, "They shall 
be mine when I come to make up my jewels." 

The appearance of this rainbow was mild in color, 
familiar in form, and magnificent in general appear- 
ance. So God comes to the saint, the fairest among 
ten thousand and altogether lovely. The Rose of 
Sharon, and the Lily of the valley; the bright and 
Morning Star. 

He comes beating back clouds arid darkness and 
spreading the effulgent rays of the golden glories of 
the New Jerusalem until the soul, entranced by His 
beauty and enraptured by His glory, cries: ''Holy, 



56 The Scourging of a Race, 

holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbaoth, the whole earth 
is full of thy glory !" 

But the apostle carries us a step farther : ''Around 
and about the throne were four and twenty seats, and 
four and twenty elders sat upon them, clothed in white 
raiment, with golden crowns upon their heads/' 

Note the fact : These seats so near the throne were 
not empty, nor filled with angelic orders, but with 
elders, four and twenty in number, to represent the 
church of .the Old and New Testament, in a special 
sense and the whole body of the redeemed in a gen- 
eral sense. 

For they wore white raiment, symbols of the purity 
of their lives, made so by being washed in the blood 
of the Lamb. Their sitting denotes their honor, rest, 
and satisfaction. Sitting around the throne, to show 
their nearness to God; sitting, gazing upon the great- 
ness of His being and studying the perfection of His 
nature ; sitting, entranced with His goodness and grace 
■and noting the wondrous ease with which He carries 
on the affairs of His government ; sitting, so near that 
they might hear the rustling of His mediatorial robes 
and trace the transcendent beauty of the divine form 
and face. O the sacred privilege! O the honored 
place ! 

Slaves once to sin, now exalted with a high seat, 
around the throne. Rebels, against heaven, now sitting 
in His peaceful presence, where they might see His 
face continually and become the most conspicuous of 
all heaven. They are the redeemed. And as angelic 
legions, flit by upon errands of love, they point them 
out, saying: ''These are they that came up through 
great tribulations and washed their robes and made 
them clean in the blood of the Lamb." 

The prophet tells us: "They that be wise shall 
shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they 
that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever 
and ever." 



The Scourging of a Race. 57 

And so the redeemed of God shine in heaven, dis- 
tinguished by white raiment and golden crowns. Dis- 
tinguished by reason of consecrated service down upon 
the battlefields of sin and strife. Do you not think 
that sainted patriarchs, Mke Abraham, the father of 
the faithful; Jacob, the angel wrestler; Moses, the 
lawgiver; Joseph, the child of providence; Daniel, 
the hero of the lion's den, will not be distinguished in 
heaven; nor the Hebrew boys who walked amidst the 
seven-fold heated furnace; Isaiah, the silvery-tongued 
advocate of the Redeemer's kingdom; David, Israel's 
sweet singer, will not attract special attention amidst 
the heavenly host? Do you not know that John the 
Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness; the four 
evangelists, who recorded for all time the earthly his- 
tory of Jesus ; Peter, the impulsive, but intrepid apostle 
and advocate for God in the midst of Pentecostal 
showers ; Paul, once persecutor, now prosecutor of 
the King's business, with a host of martyrs, whose 
blood became the seed of the church, reinforced by 
Calvin, Latimer, Wycliffe, John Wesley, Luther, 
Bunyan, Chrysostom, Carey, and an innumerable host 
of sainted worthies, shall be pointed out in heaven? 

Yes, yes, they shall have seats of honor. Not be- 
cause of what they did, but because of what Jesus did 
for them. 

Crowns were upon this celestial eldership's head. 
Crowns of victory. Victory over a mean, wicked, 
deceitful heart. Victory over a nature, warped, twisted 
and scarred by sin, until it became as a royal castle in 
ruins. Victory over sin, with all its forms and phases ; 
its secret plotting and hellish designs; its deadly and 
damning destruction; its strife, misery, envy, and 
deceit. Victory over that arch fiend of the soul — 
Satan, whose chief design is to destroy the souls of 
men. Victory over Satan, who transforms himself 
into an angel of light that he may deceive the very 
elect. Victory over his Satanic Majesty. 



58 The Scourging of a Race, 

"Him the Almighty power 

Hurl'd headlong flaming from the ethereal sky 

With hideous ruin and combustion 

Down to bottomless perdition; there to dwell, 

In adamantine chains and penal fires." 

The apostle saw the redeemed crowned, already vic- 
torious, upon every battlefield. 

Heaven belongs to the saints. It is the gift of God. 
Redemption and eternal salvation from sin and its 
^consequences, stand for the same. Once saved always 
saved, is the song of the redeemed upon earth and the 
anthem of praise in eternity. 



The Scourging of a Race, 59 

Citizenship, Suffrage and tt^e 
Negro. 



Delivered Before the Baptist ninlsters' Conference, Phila- 
delphia, Pa., 1903. 



A writer in one of our great magazines has this to 
say: 

It is a curious fact that, in selecting the ahen and 
somewhat ambiguous term "citizen'' for a title of in- 
dividual membership of the new nation, the fathers of 
the republic neither defined that iterm nor indicated a 
preference for any one of its various definitions then 
current. This could hardly have been the result of 
accident or oversight. The framers of the Constitu- 
tion were, with few exceptions, scholarly and pains- 
taking men. They were familiar with the idioms and 
legal technicalities of our language, critical and often 
fastidious in their choice of words, and rarely em- 
ployed a phrase or constructed a sentence of doubtful 
meaning. 

Moreover, they were conscious that their work 
•would be subjected to the closest scrutiny by the sev- 
eral State conventions which were to pass judgment 
upon it. How, then, shall we account for their un- 
qualified use of a term which had acquired as many 
shades of meaning as Proteus had shapes, and which, 
they must have foreseen, was to become the storm 
center of future political and judicial controversy? 
The answer to this question does not seem far to seek. 
In the first place, it should be remembered that not one 



6o The Scourging of a Race, 

of ithe many definitions of the term ''citizen" then cur- 
rent would have accurately described the then existing 
relation between any one of the thirteen States and its 
inhabitants. The States had been self-governing com- 
itiunities for about eleven years. But it was a question 
whether the citizen owed primary allegiance to the par- 
ticular State in which he resided, or whether he owed 
it to the Revolutionary government, of which the Con- 
federation was the immediate successor ; and, in either 
case, his exact relation to the governing power was 
not very clear. In the next place, wide differences of 
opinion prevailed among the members of the conven- 
tion respecting the relation that should be established 
between the citizen and the proposed new Federal gov- 
ernment. One faction wanted to establish a central 
power bearing directly upon the individual citizen. The 
other, having an undefined dread of something which 
they called ''consolidation,'' wanted merely to patch 
up the weak points in the old Articles of Confederation. 

The ideal of the one was a nation in fact as well 
as in name ; the ideal of the other was a league or com- 
pact between independent communities. One sought 
to make the citizen a member of the nation ; the other 
sought to make him a member only of the particular 
State in which he resided. It is plain, therefore, that 
any definition of the term that would have been satis- 
factory to one faction would have been obnoxious to 
the other. The only hope of agreement lay in the 
line of some compromise; and the most available, if 
not the only, compromise was to leave the technical 
import of the phrase "Citizen of the United States" 
to be evolved from future experience, and to be de- 
veloped with the gradual growth of a more clearly de- 
fined national sentiment. 

Take, for illustration, Aristotle's definition of the 
term, which is, perhaps, neither better nor worse than 
a number of others then in common use. "A citizen," 
he tells us, "is one to whom belongs the right of taking 



The Scourging of a Race, 6i 

part in both the deliberative and judicial proceedings 
of the community of which he is a member/' If in- 
terpreted literally, this would exclude all females from 
citizenship, which is absurd. And if to avoid this 
absurdity, we assume, as we reasonably may, that the 
masculine pronoun, ''he," was employed in a generic 
sense, we then have the naked assumption that every 
citizen, regardless of age, sex, condition, degree of in- 
telligence, or personal responsibility, has "the right of 
participation'' in both the legislative and judicial pro- 
ceedings of the community — ^a proposition that would 
have horrified even the extremest radical democrat 
in the convention. 

Even the verbal distinction which the fathers made 
between the terms ''citizen" and "subject" gives us but 
a faint clue to their reasons for selecting the former 
instead of the latter. Manifestly, they wish to indi- 
cate a self-governing State as distinguished from an 
autocracy, an aristocracy or a monarchy. But we can- 
not say, with Aristotle, that a "subject is merely gov- 
erned, whereas a citizen also governs." For in Eng- 
land, many subjects "also govern;" that is, they have 
the right of the elective franchise. In that sense, 
they are "citizens." In the States of the United States 
many citizens are merely governed ; that is, they have 
not, and never had, the right of sufifrage. In that 
sense ithey are "subjects." 

There are, then, as there have always been, two 
classes of citizens and two classes of subjects — namely : 
one which has, and one which has not, the right of 
participation in the affairs of government, or, as we 
would isay, the right to vote. And, since each sustains 
identical relations to its respective government, one 
general definition will comprehend both. That is to 
say, any native-born or naturalized person of either 
sex, or of whatever condition, entitled to full protec- 
tion in the exercise of all the natural or personal rights 
incident to membership of the State or nation, is a 



62 The Scourging of a Race, 

citizen or subject — the choice of terms being imma- 
terial. But there is, as there has always been, a broad 
distinction between these natural or personal rights 
and the right of participation, personally or by a chosen 
representative in the affairs of government. One is 
inherent in citizenship ; the othier is a gift conferred by 
the State. In the Greek democracies, all citizens were 
neither legislators nor magistrates ; still less were they 
ever both at ithe same time. 

All Roman citizens were not qualified electors. In 
the Dutch republic, citizenship and suffrage were never 
inseparable; in point of fact, less than half the citi- 
zens were ever voters. In the Swiss cantons, suffrage 
was never co-extensive with citizenship. In the re- 
public of France, less than half the citizens 'have, or 
ever have had, a voice in the government. Even in the 
Latin-American repubUcs, where there has been the 
nearest approach to universal suffrage, where women 
have all the natural rights inherent in citizenship, and 
even the nationality of the son follows that of the 
mother instead of the father, no woman has ever been 
a voter. 

In the United States, women are citizens, entitled to 
all the natural rights incident to that relation; yet no 
woman has ever exercised the elective franchise in 
virtue of her citizenship. W-here she has voted at all, 
it has been in virtue of an enabling act of the legisla- 
ture. In a word, it is an axiom of our law, illustrated 
by numerous judicial decisions, that the right to vote 
is not an essential element of citizenship; that a per- 
son may be a citizen, entitled to all the privileges and 
immunities incident to citizenship, without having the 
right to vote. 

''All persons born or naturalized in the United States 
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of 
the United States and of the State wherein he resides.'^ 

Every student of political science will accept the 
Constitution as authority for citizenship in the repub- 



The Scourging of a Race, 63 

lie. Birth and naturaliza'tion are therefore the funda- 
mental qualifications of American citizenship. It gives 
to its possessor a constituent membership in a great 
community ; vesting in him a title to all civil and politi- 
cal rights, asserted and secured by American institu- 
tions, securing to him the absolute protection of the 
government at home and abroad, in the enjoyment of 
life and liberty ; making him a citizen of the State 
wiherein he resides, and guaranteeing to him, upon the 
honor of the State, the absolute right of suffrage, as 
the weapon with which he may destroy all discriminat- 
ing ilaws, that menace his personal liberty and the 
highest good of the community; and an instrument 
with wihich ihe may eliminate unjust laws; relegating 
to ''innocuous desuetude" rotten and corrupt adminis- 
trations and forever asserting the sovereignty of citi- 
zenship .as well as speedily and surely contributing to 
the element of a high and exalted civilization. 

Every civilization has its destructive and preserva- 
tive elements. Citizenship must see to it that the one 
is destroyed and the other promoted. It cannot rise 
higher than its source. Every people that has deeply 
impressed itself upon the human family has repre- 
sented one great idea, which has directed its life and 
formed its civilization. The Egyptian stood for life, 
the Persian light, the Hebrew purity, the Greek beauty, 
the Roman law, and the Anglo-Saxon liberty. Thomas 
Jefferson said, "The God who gave us life, gave us 
liberty at the same time.'' This is true of every man, 
no matter what his color or condition. Freedom is the 
precursor of civilization in a republic; its basis is 
nature; its standard is justice; its protection is law; 
it is bounded alone by the golden words of the Mas- 
ter, ''Do unto others as ye would that they should do 
unto you." 

The founders of this nation fought first to break 
the shackles of English tyranny, to unfetter the spirit 
of a people, who under God were destined to play an 



64 The Scourging of a Race. 

impontant part in the development of a new world; 
tlhey turned their attention next to the adoption of an 
instrument that should define what liberty meant and 
secure these blessings to themselves and their posterity. 
The civilized world knows how well they succeeded. 
It is not strange that the American Negro should find 
himtself facing the hot fibres of persecution and contend- 
ing, too, for an unfettered manhood, as have every 
other people. It has always been slowly guaranteed 
and given only when the race, by patient sufifering and 
nobility of life, has demonstrated its right to live. 

To place any suffrage qualifications upon citizenship 
is to abridge the privilege or immunity of such citizen- 
ship — logical fallacy and political trickery would make 
it appear that the right to vote remains, yes, upon the 
same principle that it is the right of the common 
laborer to take the place of the capitalist, but the 
barriers placed in his way are so heavy; his wages 
kept so small, that he dies without ever accomplishing 
it. So in restricting or qualifying voters in the South, 
While it would make no difference to the Negro, for 
in that section he is thrifty and of more average in- 
telligence than his white neighbor, yet it violates the 
principles of a democracy, taking the government 
from the hands of the many and placing it in the hands 
of the few. The disfranchisement of the Negro is 
rank injustice, born of prejudice and race hatred. 
Everybody knows that the ballot placed in the Negro's 
hands is the badge of his citizenship, and has been no 
more abused by him than by the army of foreigners 
who are by political trickery and methods of perjury 
''made ready for voting" in State and National elec- 
tions. The attempt to qualify electors either by educa- 
tion or property qualifications or to keep back the 
growing numbers who desire to exercise the first and 
highest right of citizenship is a thing that the framers 
of the Constitution had never dreamed of. That a 
country of such boasted freedom and humanitarianism 



The Scourging of a Race. 65 

should resort to these methods 'only shows how low 
i(t is possible for partisan politicians and low grade 
statesmen to stoop. 

The disfranchisement of any class of citizens must 
inevitably lead to dreadful civil and political complica- 
tion, creating sectional inequalities of enormous mag- 
nitude and ignoring 'the safeguard against the same, 
which reads : 

"Se:ction I. All persons born or naturalized in the 
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, 
are citizens of the United States and of the State 
wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce 
any law which shall abridge the privileges or immuni- 
ties of citizens of the United States; nor shall any 
State deprive any person of life, liberty or property 
without due process of law; nor deny to any person 
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

''Sec. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among 
the several States according to their respective num- 
bers, counting the whole number of persons in each 
State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the 
right to vote at any election for the choice of electors 
for President and Vice-President of the United States, 
Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judi- 
cial Officers of a State, or the members of the Legisla- 
ture 'thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants 
of such State, being twentynone years of age, and 
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, 
except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, 
'the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in 
proportion which the number of such male citizens 
shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty- 
one years of age in such State.'^ 

Our first attempt at a constitutional definition of the 
phrase ''Citizen of the United States'" was made after 
a somewhat stormy experience of about eig'hty years. 
I allude, of course, to the joint resolution of the Thirty- 
ninth Congress of June 16, 1866, proposing what is 
5a 



66 The Scourging of a Race. 

now known as the Fourteenth Amendment. It was 
subsequently ratified by the requisite number of States ; 
and, on the 2ist day of July, 1866, was officially pro- 
claimed as an integral part of our fundamental law. 
The first section of that amendment declares that ''air 
persons born or naturalized in the United States and 
subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the 
United States and of the State w'herein they reside." 
And, in due course, each of the particular States, con- 
forming to this definition, so amended their code as to 
declare, in substance, that '* all citizens of the United 
States, residing in the State, are citizens of the State,'' 
thus excluding, by plain implication, all who are not 
citizens of the United States. 

This has been characterized as ''a revolution in our 
form of government." It was not quite that. But it 
was a turning point in our constitutional and political 
history, and marked the advent of a new era in the 
evolution of American citizenship. Up to that time 
we searched in vain for some clear and authentic 
definition of the familiar but doubtful phrase, ''Citi- 
zenship of the United States.'' It could be found neither 
in our fundamental or statutory law, nor in any of the 
decisions of our Supreme Court. Nor could it be de- 
rived from the concurrent actions or rulings of any 
two of the co-ordinate departments of the government. 
In its elements and its details, citizenship of the United 
States was as little understood and as much open to 
speculative criticism in 1861 as it was in 1787. 

For more than three-quarters of a century it had 
been an adjourned question whether a person could 
be a citizen of the IJnited States at all except as he 
was such incidentally, and then only in a limited or 
qualified sense, by reason of his being a citizen of one 
of the particular States. It was, therefore, an open 
question whether the ultimate allegiance of the citizen 
was due to the State or to the general government. 
Indeed, Mr. Calhoun and other exponents of the so- 



The Scourging of a Race. 67 

called Jeffersonian itheory of the Constitution had gone 
so far as to contend that there was "no isuch thing as 
citizenship of the United States/' per se : ''that a person 
born and living in the District of Columbia or other 
Territory of the Union, although in the United States 
and subject to its jurisdiction, was not, in reality, a 
citizen of the United States/' And, absurd as the 
proposition now seems, it had never been fairly met 
by any adverse decision of our Supreme Court. 

The Fourteenth Amendment settled, as it was in- 
tended to settle, this vexed question at once and for- 
ever. It established a citizenship of the United States 
that is wholly independent of States lines. It thus 
created authority commanding the common obedience 
of its individual members, and, for the first time, made 
us a nation in fact as well as in name. A person may 
now be a citizen of the United States without being 
a citizen of any one particular State ; but by no con- 
ceivable combination of circumstances can he be a 
citizen of one of the particular States till he is first 
a citizen of the United States. 

Now what is the offset of these flagrant violations 
of law? It lies in the Congress and the Republican 
party. In the men who represent justice and equity in 
that body. They must see to it that such men are 
elected as will raise their voice against this unequal 
representation. They know it exists and have not the 
stamina to attack it. Will the North and East stand 
supinely by and give the right hand of fellowship to 
men who stand for as much in a disfranchised district 
as those who are constitutionally represented? Or 
will they call a halt, and say to all vote-stealing States, 
When your representatives are elected by the people 
of your States we will hail them in the halls of Con- 
gress, but we ask them to stand back until then ? What 
is the difference between Smoot, of Utah, and Ben 
Tillman, of South Carolina ? One stands for adultery 
and the other for theft, both of which are condemned 



68 The Scourging of a Race, 

by the decalogue. One is not allowed a seat because 
of 'the protest of all the people against his alleged 
polygamous relations ; the other is allowed both a seat 
and a voice, disgracing the United States Senate with 
his foul and nauseating slanders against decency and 
respectability, and posing as a sorry spectacle to the 
world of how possible it is for common dogs to get 
into dignified company. 

These and other cases are a sad commentary upon 
American politics and canot escape the ridicule of 
other nations. America must remember that the eyes 
of the civilized -world are upon <her, and that the same 
humanitarianism that was extended to Cuba lingers 
in the hearts of others high in power and they may yet 
become the asylum for the Black Man, who has been 
bitten and stung by American prejudice. The un- 
bridled audacity of Northern and Southern convention 
orators gives the skeptical friends of the Negro a 
chance to see the real isentiment against the race. En- 
thusiasts may prate about the good such meetings may 
do; about what a great boon they are to society, but 
the only good that can come is to lift the veil and show 
to the world the viper that poisons and kills ; to reveal 
the crystalized hatred against any equitable arrange- 
ment for the Negro to live in peace and prosperity 
in this country. 

Any sentiment that curbs the privilege to go where 
you please and to do as you please without infringing 
upon the rights of others, makes citizenship dangerous 
to its possessor ; where there is no liberty, there is no 
citizenship, and where neither exist, why should we ask 
for patriotism ? Yet we have an example of the Negro 
race, a people, restricted in both liberty and citizen- 
ship, still intensely patriotic. Henry Clay said, ''Per- 
sonal or private courage is totally distinct from that 
higher and nobler courage that prompts the patriot to 
offer liimself a voluntary sacrifice to his country's 
good." 



The Scourging of a Race, 69 

Webster says : 'Tatriotism is characteristic of a 
good citizen, the noblest sentiment that animates man 
in the character of a citizen." Here is the testimony 
of two of the mightiest statesmen this country ever 
produced. If we are to beheve their testimony the 
Negro stands forth a patriot, from the first blood of 
the revolution that dripped its crimson course from the 
sable tody of Crispus Attucks, to the black heroes of 
El Caney and San Juan Hill, and even on the hot battle 
sands of the Philippine Islands the evidence has been 
unimpeachable of the patriotism of the Negro. 

'Xet history speak 3,000 years B. C. The Negro 
won fame in Egyptian armies under Sesostris and 
Xerxes, land Heroidotus speaks of eighteen Egyptian 
kings who were Ethiopians. Negroes built the ancient 
Thebes with her 100 gates, her wonderful temples, 
and beautiful palaces. Karnac and the pyramids were 
erected by them, and Mero, the queenless city, was re- 
ferred to as a city of splendor and glory, noted for 
inventive genius and varied scholarship, the cradle of 
civilization and the mother of art. The best scholars 
and historians claim Ethiopia gave learning to Egypt; 
Egypt to Greece ; Greece to Rome ; Rome to the 
Britons, and the Britons to the world.'' Such is the 
Negro's place in the intellectual and political history of 
the world. 

If his record in all the wars ever waged by this 
country does not speak for him, what does? His 
breast bared to the leaden bullet, his manly form bap- 
tised in the smoke and fire of battle, his bleeding and 
dying body attesting his love of country and saying 
in eloquent terms, ''They love their land because it is 
their own, and scorn to give aught other reason why.'' 
The citizen in the hope of securing his rights looks to 
the dominant political party. Where else should he 
look? The Republican party is a synonym for free- 
dom. It was born in the high and holy realms of hu- 
man liberty. Its obligations to secure civil and political 



yo The Scourging of a Race, 

liberty to all classes of citizens alike is as binding to- 
day as ever. The idea that the Negro is in debt to the 
party is the merest rot ; if anything, the party is heavily 
in debt to the race. It has been the recipient of his votes 
since the right of suffrage was conferred upon him; 
it has narrowed down his political vision to where he 
has not been able to see salvation in any other name. 
For this he has been eternally damned by the enemies 
of the party, and criminally neglected by the master 
he has so long served. Democrats don't want him; 
Lilly Whites won't have 'him ; Populists never had any 
use for him, and his only hope is to manfully contend 
for what belongs to him in the ihouse where he was 
born. He should speak out in the next campaign as 
never before. If Republicanism is powerless to stop 
lynchings and all their horrible and hellish attendants, 
it should be made to put such legislation on the statute 
books as will forever crush it, since this barbarism is 
now confined to no section nor race and has become 
purely an American pastime, finding enthusiastic ad- 
vocates in the United States Senate, among eminent 
lawyers, politicians, literary scholars, clergymen, and 
other public men, holding high positions that should 
stand for law and order. 

The rapid increase of lawlessness in this country is 
startling and threatens to choke the life out of our 
citizenship. Where red-handed crime stalks through 
the land, putting no estimate upon life and liberty; ad- 
vocating its right to murder and kill because of 
aggravating circumstances, the citizenship of the peo- 
ple is in dreadful danger. You cannot tell when you 
come in contact with a murderer in the lynching dis- 
tricts ; you do not know whose hands drip with blood. 
The thirst for blood is an instinct of the lower animals ; 
one taste calls for another. This is beastly. There is 
still much of the beastly nature in man; if moral de- 
velopment does not check it, it must be held in abey- 
ance by the iron Ihand of the law, but when the law 



The Scourging of a Race, 71 

is dead ithere are no restrictions and the community 
may expect every virtue to be assailed and a worse 
state to exist than the pandemonium of which Milton 
writes. 

The rapid growth of prejudice among the races is 
an alarming menace to citizenship. The kind of legisla- 
tion that establishes the Jim Crow oar is born of race 
prejudice and hatred. It is not due to the roughness 
and ill manners of colored people; those who 'have 
traveled in the Siouth will testify that there is as much 
meanness land coarse acting among the whites as col- 
ored. It is only the lower classes of either race that 
are guilty of such misdemeanors. It is a disgrace upon 
any State that citizens who stand for educational at- 
tainment, social purity, and material wealth, and every- 
thing that is helpful to the community should be made 
to suffer the insult to their manhood and respectability, 
that is afforded by the Jim Crow car. 

One of the hardest slaps given this relic of bar- 
barism was in the -manly course taken by General 
Harries, of the National Guard of the District of Co- 
lumbia, in deciding not to hold the annual encampment 
in Virginia, but removing it to Maryland, where the 
black soldiers would not be insulted by sudh heathen 
laws. (The action was taken before the days of Jim 
Crow cars in Maryland.) General Harries deserves 
the warmest words of praise from every Negro in this 
country, and if his example would be followed by others 
high in authority the days of such legislation would be 
numbered. All hail the manly, liberty-loving soldier 
and patriot, Brigadier-General Harries. And now I 
exhort you to be strong in manly courage, in the acqui- 
sition of wealth, in the formation of sterling character, 
and of the exercise of a strong and unwavering faith 
in God. No people rise above their hindrances and 
obstacles, without faith in God. 

Our fathers made an undying religious record. 
Their steady fidelity to the principles of Christianity 



72 The Scourging of a Race, 

will live as long as time makes its revolutions and rea- 
son sits upon its throne. 

Our enemies are numerous and datermined, we must 
baffle their malice and hatred by contributing to the 
world, the best elements of manhood and womanhood. 



The Scourging of a Race. 73 

Ruth— A Noble Type of True 
Womanhood. 



Sermon to Queen Deborah, Household of Ruth, 
G. U. O. O. r., Washington, D. C, 1557. 



"Intreat ime not to leave thee, or to return fram follow- 
ing after thee; for whither thou goest I will go; and where 
thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people and 
thy God my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will 
I be buried/'— i^wf/j i, 16-17. 

Ruth was a Moahitis'h woman, the wife, first, of 
Mahlon, second of Boaz, the ancestress of David, and 
of Christ, and one of the four women who are named 
by St. Matthew in the genealogy of Christ. 

A severe famine in the land of Judah induced 
EHmelech, a native of Bethlehem Ephratah, to emi- 
grate into the land of Moab with his wife, Naomi, and 
his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. 

At the end of ten years, Naomi, now left a widow 
and childless, having heard that there was plenty again 
in Judah, resolved to return to Bethlehem, and her 
daughter-in-law, Ruth, returned with her. 

They arrived at Bethlehem just at the beginning of 
barley harvest, and Ruth going out to glean chanced 
to go into the field of Boaz, a wealthy man, and near 
kinsman of her father-in-law, EHmelech. 

Upon learning who the stranger was Boaz treated 
her with the utmost kindness and respect, and sent 
her home laden with corn, which she had gleaned. 

Encouraged by this incident, Naomi instructed Ruth 
to claim lat the hand of Boaz that he should perform 



74 The Scourging of a Race, 

the part of her husband's near kinsman by purchasing 
the inheritance of EHmelech and taking her to be his 
wife. 

But there was a nearer kinsman than Boaz, and it 
was necessary that the should have the option of re- 
deeming the inheritance for himself. He, however, 
declined, fearing to mar his own inheritance. 

Upon iwhich, with all due solemnity, Boaz took Ruth 
to be his wife, amidst the blessings and congratu'lations 
of their neighbors. 

We have in the beautiful language and noble deter- 
mination of Ruth, a sincere exlhibition of friendship 
and devotion. 

The relation between this beautiful character — Ruth 
— who was eminently fitted to bend to a harp or sway 
a queenly sceptre, was of the pleasantest nature. 

The warmth of love that glowed in her bosom had 
consumed her whole nature, and in the hour of ad- 
versity clung like a tender tendril to the only object 
of its aflfectionate desire. 

So impressive and instructive is the narrative and 
so worthy of emulation the example of Ruth that the 
Odd Fellows have given it a high place within the 
courts of its magnificent temple. Odd Fellowship is a 
secret institution, organized for social enjoyment, fra- 
ternal communion, and mutual assistance. It acknowl- 
edges the Fatherhood of God and fellowship with man- 
kind as brethren. 

Its creed is based upon moral principles, and in its 
practice it exemplifies the precepts of Ohristianity. 

Like the sun in its infinite splendor, it is not bounded 
by any country; having the welfare of humanity at 
heart, it is confined to no clime ; impregnated with the 
sentiments of peace and good will to mankind, it is 
not limited to any race; adverse to any assumptions 
of exclusiveness, it i^ not the appendage of any class ; 
grounded upon the conviction that God is no respecter 
of persons, it is not the peculiar privilege of any color. 
It is sublime in its conception, catholic in its prin- 



The Scour gi7ig of a Race, 75 

oiples, complete in its agency, universal in its purpose, 
and transcendent in its results. 

It matters not from what part of the world a dis- 
tressed member of our order may come, be he a Jew, 
Turk, Indian, African, or any other of the races whom 
some ungodly Christians have assumed to proscribe; 
if he appeals to a lodge of the Grand United Order in 
America, Europe, or the Isles of the Sea, he would 
invoke fraternal greeting among the brethren, and such 
material relief as mecessary would be promptly ex- 
tended. 

A modern invention, which is a decided improve- 
ment, was the organization in 1857 of another branch, 
called the Household of Ruth, for the admission of 
ladies nearly related to Odd Fellows, to which only 
members, who have attained the Fifth or Scarlet De- 
gree, are eligible. 

The blending of woman's sweetness with man's ser- 
vice has crystalized the order into an Elysium. 

The conception which harmonizes the grace of 
woman with the strength of man in the performance 
of good works embodies a grand and irresistible power. 

To witness our wives, daughters, mothers, and sis- 
ters going up to our lodges, initiated into our ancient 
mysteries and imbued with the spirit of our mission, is 
a spectacle which Odd Fellows contemplate with min- 
gled interest and admiration. 

There are two shrines at which enlightened men 
worship — God and woman. 

The greatest minds ; the purest hearts have sung the 
praises of woman. Milton apostrophises her thus : 

"O fairest of creation, last and best of all God's works, creature 

in whom excelled, 
Whatever can to sight or thought be formed, 
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet." 

Gail Hamilton says : ''The perfect woman is as 
beautiful as she is strong ; as tender as she is sensible. 



76 The Scourging of a Race, 

She is calm, deliberate, dignified, leisurely. She is 
gay, graceful, sprightly, sympathetic. She is severe 
upon occasions and upon occasions playful. She has 
fancies, dreams, romances, ideas." 

"She beams on the sight, 

Graceful and fair, like a (being of ligiht, 

Scatters around 'her wherever she sitrays, 

Roses of bliss, o'er our thorn-covered ways; 

Roses of Paradise, sent from above, 

To be gathered and twined in a garland of love/' 

Such is man's picture of true womanhood, but the 
world has never placed a proper estimate upon her 
worth to man and society. 

Fair in 'her virtue, resistless in her power, polished 
in her manners, afifectionate in her disposition, she at 
once entwines herself around our souls and sheds the 
all animating and transforming fragrance of her noble 
nature into every phase of man's life and work. 

Man represents the understanding of the universe, 
woman the will ; man the mind, woman the soul. 

It was a woman that walked through the streets of 
Alexandria with hair hanging in tangled locks upon 
her shoulders ; her bosom heaving with ithe motion of 
the hidden fire of patriotism ; bearing a flaming torch 
in one hand and a vessel of water in the other, ex- 
claiming: ''I will burn the heavens with this torch 
and extinguish the fires of hell with this water, that 
man may love his God." 

Christ himself exalted woman by assuming her 
nature las a tabernacle of his divinity, and a temple of 
the Holy Ghost. 

Bearing the image and likeness of our Creator, 
matrixed and tutored by a mother's love, our reverence 
and veneration for her become an enduring part of our 
nature. 

In despair we appeal to heaven for relief, and in dis- 
tress we welcome the celestial intervention of woman. 

Wisdom and good policy could not have engrafted 



The Scourging of a Race, 77 

a more durable element of strength and success, which 
has increased into 1,049 Households, forming an im- 
portant adjunct of our order. 

In 'her sympathizing and flexiMe ministrations she 
is the hope in sickness and the solace in death. 

A member honored with this degree is brightened in 
misfortune with hovering sisters of Ruth. If any of 
the brethren who can say, ''I am of that degree," 
should be afflicted in a strange city, special blessings 
would be invoked in the Household of Ruth, and min- 
istrations of its congenial spirits would follow. 

Their soft hands would cool the fevered brow ; their 
isweet voices would calm the anguished mind; their 
holy influence would infuse into the surroundings all 
the endearments of home, and if called upon to close 
the eyes in eternal slumber, they would solemnly and 
affectionately perform the last sad rites over the 
coffined remains. 

The faithful and heautiful sentiments of the daugh- 
ter-in-law of Naomi are the sacred vows of every sis- 
t-er of Ruth, wihich she exempHfies in her intercourse 
with all who are contributing members of -that degree. 

The character and purpose of the Household, em- 
blazoned upon its banners, and stamped upon the hearts 
of its members, are intended to perpetuate in the fam- 
ily of Odd Fellows the glorious principle that your 
brother shall be my brother, your sister shall be my 
sister, your God shall be my God, and nothing but 
d^ath shall part us. 

To be an Odd Fellow is to be a good fellow. It is 
disloyal to no government, encroaches upon no re- 
ligious dogma, conflicts with no political party, and 
antagonizes no faction, but rising above patriotism, 
the confines of sectarianism, the bias of partisanism, 
and the taint of proscription, it is fellowshipping men 
of every clime, color, kindred and tongue into a cos- 
mopolitan association. 

The Odd Fellows with all their various adjuncts 



78 The Scourging of a Race, 

have a mission to perform, a mission as ennobling and 
elevating as that of the angel host, who tourn with a 
seraphic zeal to do God's high behests — a mission hav- 
ing for its primal object the uplifting of fallen human- 
ity, a mission the outgrowth of the glorious principles 
of Christianity, covered with the songs of dateless cen- 
turies, which, like a sea of light, roll around the throne 
of her glory. 

On her garments are the dust and blood of unnum- 
bered conflicts; on her brow sits enthroned fresh, 
bright, and beautiful the beams of mercy ; as grand as 
when the star of Bethlehem was first pointed out and 
the soul-stirring melody of heaven fell upon the ear of 
oriental sages, ''Glory to God in the highest, on earth 
peace, good will toward men." Whatever the possi- 
bilities of man to accomplish good, the possibilities of 
woman are greater. 

For who can shed abroad a more beneficent in- 
fluence? With her touch she transforms the homely 
into the beautiful ; the uncultured into the refined. 

Man may boast of superior strength, but woman ex- 
cels in beauty; man may call himself a monarch, but 
woman may sway his sceptre whithersoever she willeth. 

Man may lead unnumbered hosts to victory, he may 
rend kingdoms, convulse nations, and drench battle- 
fields in blood, but woman with heavenly smiles and 
pleasant words can outnumber, outweigh, and outstrip 
the noblest efiforts of a generation. 

l^he iobligation of Ruth involves great responsibili- 
ties. How shall they be met ? 

By going forth into the highways and hedges and 
compelHng men to bow allegiance to Calvary's cross. 

You are supposed to go to the prison bound and 
tell them of him who sets the captive free. 

Go to the hungry and give them the bread of life. 
Go to the poor and tell them of the riches of divine 
grace. Go to the troubled and burdened >and tell them 
of that burden bearer who says, ''Come unto me, all 



The Scourging of a Race, 79 

ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you 
rest." 

If you are not accustomed to seeing suffering hu- 
manity, ask God to make you so; after you have 
helped a few people you will find something in life 
worth living for. Your coniscience will say, ''Well 
done;" your fellow man will say, "Well done," and 
your God v^ill say, ''Well done." 

As an organization there will come a time when no 
cloud will appear in your sky ; no obstacle will hinder 
your progress. Your future will seem as bright and 
promising as the cloudless magnificence of an oriental 
sky. 

And there will come the time when the deformed 
face of adversity will be thrust in upon you; when the 
sombre clouds of difficulty shall throw their black 
mantle around you; when friends forsake you, and 
enemies press hard against your soul ; the shafts of 
slander will be hurled at you ; envy will fill its quiver 
with arrows ; strife will play its part, under the cloud 
of darkness; public sentiment, falsely conceived, will 
rock you on its angry waves ; yea, the darkness of the 
night of sorrow will be heavy upon you; the mutter- 
ing thunder will be heard ; the vivid lightning will be 
seen ; but, my dear friends, stay in the ranks. 

/The battle is not yours, but God's. If you have 
consecrated yourselves to this work, do it in sickness 
and sorrow, in prosperity and advers'ity, at home and 
abroad, on the land, on the sea, in the alley, in the lane, 
in the cellar, in the garret, in the basement, on the 
shaded avenue, on the- broad paved street, do God's 
service, and when you leave this world many a soul 
will bow at your grave and with tearful eye and grate- 
ful heart will pay a deserving tribute to a useful life 
in the language of the Master, "Well done, thou good 
and faithful servant." 

And as your soul, quivering with a hope of a blessed 
immortality, shall plunge the vaulted dome insulting 



8o Tht Scourging of a Race, 

the iheight of the sun and leaving the moon underneath 
its feet, sweeping by the portals of the New Jerusalem 
and pressing its way through angel legions, it shall 
receive the welcome plaudit, ''Come ye iblessed of my 
father,'' and forever bathe in the ineffable seas of 
celestial g^lory, and amidst the pauses of archangel 
harps and voices, and the praises of just men made 
perfect, as humble as the seraphim bow, and in the 
blessedness of that glorified state cry, ''Holy, holy, holy 
Lord God of Sabbaoth/' 



The Scotirging of a Race. 8i 



The Divine- Humanity. 



Preached before nt. Bethel Baptist Association, Washing- 
ton, D. C, 1900. 



"Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by 
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the 
midst of you, as ye yourselves also know : 

' * Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore- 
knowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have 
crucified and slain." — Acts ii^ 22^ 2j. 

The text is a part of Peter's convincing argument 
on the day of Pentecost. The assembled Eastern world 
v^as present. It was a national festival. Thronging 
multitudes from Judea and the regions round about 
had come to mingle in the sacred ceremonies and at- 
test their faith anew, in this Jewish religious feast. 

It was a representative gathering. Parthians, 
Medes, Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea, 
Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, 
in Egypt. Libya about Cyrene and strangers of 
Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, had 
come to mingle on this historic occasion and unite in 
its sacred service. 

Wealth, character, statesmanship, and intellectual 
attainment had taken possession of the city. Every 
philosophic school had its adherent, every religious 
sect its devotee. The merchant from the marts of 
commerce, the lawyer from his brief, the physician 
from his patient, the sturdy agriculturist from the 
field, the artisan from mechanical pursuits, the father 
from the family circle, and even the children from 
6 



82 The Scourging of a Race, 

innocent play, had found it their highest ambition to 
go up to ithe Pentecostal feast. 

The time was opportune and the event auspicious. 
The crucifix^ion was fresh in the minds of all present. 
l%e dying groans of Calvary had hardly died away; 
the scenes attending were still before them with awful 
vividness. The resurrection with its supernatural in- 
terference; the empty tomb yawned before their men- 
tal vision, and the irrefutable evidences of a risen Lord, 
— all added to the impressiveness of the occasion. 

The infant church had gathered to receive the Holy 
Ghost. 

This was to be the baptismal morn, when the 
prophecy of John the Baptist should find a literal ful- 
fillment. ''There cometh one after me, the latchet of 
whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and un- 
loose. He shall baptize you with fire and the Holy 
Spirit." Christ had promised the comforter. It must 
descend to-day. This descent of the Holy Sjwrit 
marked a new epoch in the history of Christianity and 
the development of humanity. It was to influence un- 
born generations. 

It was a distinctive period in the world's history, a 
period that was to affect humanity until time should 
cease its noiseless tread. The Lutheran reformation, 
which occurred centuries after, was not half as wide- 
spread in its influence or in its distinctiveness. The 
invention of the printing press, by which the thoughts 
and sentiments of men are chrystalized and brought 
within the observation of countless eyes, did not give 
to the literary world a more distinctive history; the 
discovery of America, by v^hich the gates of a new 
world were thrown wide open and mankind invited to 
walk amidst its boundless resources, delve into its hid- 
den and mysterious depths, admire its beauty and be- 
come entranced at its marvelous progress ; — ^this coun- 
try that has taught the civilized world its best lessons 
of liberty and law, idid not give to human activity any 



The Scourging of a Race. 83 

imore distinctiveness than the descent of the Holy Spirit 
upon the day of Pentecost. 

The church upon this memorable occasion assumed 
organic existence. It was no longer to have its scat- 
tered discipleship adhering to religious principles that 
were not tihe distinguishing features of a new and 
divine organization. Upon its birthday it was mis- 
represented, but God had a man, as he always has had, 
to rise in its defense. 

Peter, the impulsive but intrepid apostle, arose, and 
defended the infant church against the slander of its 
enemies. It had been charged that they were filled 
with new wine, but Peter referred them to prophecy, 
for he knew the strong faith of the Jew in the ''law 
and the prophets.'' He stood forth in the midst of this 
critical assemblage, armed with truth, and therefore 
invincible in argument, and exclaimed : ''Ye men of 
Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this 
known unto you and hearken unto my words : 

"For these men are not drunken as ye suppose, see- 
ing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is 
that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it 
shall come to pass in the last days, saith Gk)d, I will 
pour out of my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons 
and your daughters shall pmphesy, and your young 
men shall see visions and your old men shall dream 
dreams. 

"And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I 
will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall 
prophesy. 

"And I will show wonders in heaven above, and 
signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor 
of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and 
the moon into blood, before that great and notable day 
of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that 
w^hosoever ishall call upon the name of the Lord shall 
be saved. 

"Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of 



84 The Scourging of a Race. 

Nazareth, a man approved of God, among you by 
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by 
him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. 
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and 
fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked 
hands have crucified and slain.'' 

We therefore call your attention to "The Divine- 
Humanity." By the subject we mean no new hu- 
manity, not one lifted from its environments, but one 
that is subject to all the physical conditions incident 
to ordinary humanity, for Christ possessed a body like 
man's, tempted in all points like unto man, but yielded 
not. 

He was no less a God because he was man; his 
divinity was not humanized, nor was ihis humanity 
deified because of the intimacy of the two natures. 

The attributes of the one and the elements of the 
other are as distinct as the waves of the sea. But in 
the masterly argument of the apostle there is set forth 

A CI.AIM. 

Jesus of Nazareth, a man. Upon this statement 
hangs his humanity. The law demanded a man, and 
God honored woman by giving to the world a Savior 
that was a man, born under the same physical condi- 
tions with other men. 

He could have delegated an archangel to accom- 
plish redemption's mighty work, or given a new crea- 
tion, by the suspension of certain laws, and the ex- 
ercise of his eternal purpose, but it pleased him to con- 
form to every claim of the law and make the world's 
redeemer a man — a man to satisfy the law. All the 
sacrifices that pointed to the redeemer were to be male. 
A bullock without blemish for a sin oflFering was to be 
brought before the door of the tabernacle and after 
the priest had laid his hands upon him, he was killed 
before the Lord. 

This was the legal requirement under the covenant 



The Scourging of a Race. 85 

of works, so grace requires a man without spot or 
blemish, repudiating the blood of bulls, the ofifering 
of doves, for 

"Not all the blood of bulls, 

On Jewis'h altars slain, 
Could give the guilty conscience peace, 

Or wash away the stain. 

"But Christ the heavenly lamb 

Takes all our sins aw-ay; 
A sacrifice of nobler name, 

And richer blood than they." 

God honored womanhood in the birth of Christ by 
a woman. She was a party to the fall and now be- 
comes a party to salvation. 

"By one man sin entered the world and death by 
sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all have 
sinned.'' 

For as by one man's disobedience many were made 
sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made 
righteous." 

Here we have the fact of universal depravity through 
one man's sin and the truth of universal redemption 
through the obedience of Jesus Christ. 

But the apostle proceeds with the claim — a man — to 
teach. Christ was the greatest of all teachers. His 
teachings were beyond those of the profoundest phi- 
losophers of his age. Human philosophy had ran- 
sacked creation for principles upon which to regulate 
human conduct, and when they were found they only 
served as a bone of contention between these schools 
of thought. 

Christ came with authority. He lifted the veil of 
ignorance. He unburdened humanity of its false 
hopes; he unfettered reason and set before the world 
life and immortality in these words: ''God so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten son, that who- 
soever believeth in him should not perish, but have 



86 The Scourging of a Race, 

everlasting life/' He brought upon himself the united 
hatred and opposition of the different sects that had 
been deluding the popular mind; he threatened their 
influence ; laid the axe at the tree of their employment, 
and declared that the religion he came to establish 
must cover the w^hole earth, completely annihilating 
all existing sects and leaving the scattered fragments 
to perish as all things earthly must. He came to abol- 
ish the old, that could only reach a certain class, and 
was intended to benefit the few and establish the new, 
which was to be universal in its scope, inoluding every 
nation, people, kindred, and tongue, and blessing the 
world with its heaven-born influence until time groaned 
its expiring breath and the infant cry announced 
eternity's birth. 

As a teacher his methods were somewhat novel. He 
sent the truth home to the human heart; his mission 
was too important; too much depended upon it, for 
him to lose an opportunity; he knew the obstacles in 
the way and sought to remove them. His weapon was 
the truth — the truth of history and prophecy, common 
every day truth — ^simple, but irresistible and convinc- 
ing; truth as old as eternity and as new as the latest 
sunbeam that kissed the morning flower ; truth that the 
wayfaring man, though fool, might not err in com- 
prehending. 

He was, therefore, always ready to answer those 
who sought to confound him. Upon one occasion he 
said to his narrow, prejudiced antagonist, ''Ye shall 
know the truth and it shall make you free.'' 

A man to lead. Napoleon, the man of destiny, once 
said, ''Alexander, Caesar, Charlemange, 'and I myself 
have founded great empires, but upon what do these 
creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus 
alone founded his empire upon love, and to this very 
day millions would die for him. 

I think I understand something of human nature, 



The Scourging of a Race. 87 

and I tell you all these Avere men and I am a man. 
Jesus Christ was more than a man/' 

Christ builds his empire, not upon force nor fear, 
for both of these are but creatures of a moment ; they 
fail to hold permanently; not upon the intellect, nor 
upon the will, but upon love, the strongest emotion of 
which humanity is capable. Here is the secret of his 
power over man. He makes the heart 'his fortress ; he 
builds there the eternal fires of affection; he sends 
from this perrennial fount the streams that gladden the 
world. He says : ''The kingdom of God is within 
you.'' Within the soul enlightening and strengthen- 
ing, giving fresh visions of God and his providences ; 
fresh draughts from the inexhaustible wells of salva- 
tion; within the soul, moving with silent power the 
whole man ; consecrating his talents and time ; stimu- 
lating his benevolence ; enlargening his zeal for the 
kingdom, even imaking him willing to die for the mas- 
ter's sake — transforming his character and making 
his entire life ''a thing of beauty and a joy forever." 

It is upon this principle he leads : ''Tihou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thine heart." 

As a leader he had a wonderful hold upon the affec- 
tions of the people because he identified himself with 
theiir best interests. He confined his work not to any 
class, or race, but to all the people — "Jew and Gentile, 
Barbarian and Cythian, bond and free." 

•'The people followed him because they saw in him 
the elements of true leadership. They discovered him 
to be the best friend of humanity ; a benefactor of the 
human race. Every day of his life furnished fresh 
proofs of his devotion to the best welfare of humanity. 

He was the tool of no clique nor party; he stood 
aloof from everything that could detract from the 
effect of his ministry ; he announced as the burden of 
his soul that "His meat was to do the will of him 
that sent him and to finish the work." 

The opened eyes of the blind; the unstopped ears 



88 . The Scourging of a Race. 

of the deaf; the cleansed leper, and the resurrected 
dead, all attested the truth of prophecy uttered cen- 
turies before his coming by the silvery tongued Isaiah. 
''Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the 
ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame man shall leap 
as an hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. 
For in the wilderness shall waters break forth and 
streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall 
become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; 
and a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall 
be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not 
pass over it, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring 
man, though fool, shall not err therein." 

But the apostle proceeds to give a proof of this 
claim: "A man approved of God, by miracles and 
wonders and signs.'' A miracle is a plain and 
manifest exercise, by a man or by God at the call 
of a man, of those powers which belong only to 
God. No phenomenon in nature, however unusual; 
no event in the course of God's providence, however 
unexpected, is a miracle unless it can be traced to the 
agency of man, put forth as the proof of a divine 
mission. The miracles of the gospel were intended 
to be a demonstration of Christianity. They were the 
seal of divinity upon the religion of Christ — God's 
testimony to the truth of the gospel. They tare the 
language of Jehovah in reference to the superior dig- 
nity, the surpassing grandeur, the inexplicable mys- 
tery of the gospel of Jesus. 

The signs and wonders may be elements in this mir- 
aculous feature of the gospel. Now the apostle de- 
clares these displays of omnipotence to be heaven's 
approval of Jesus Christ; the testimony of eternity 
that he is God and his religion is not a cunningly 
devised fable — ^not a creature of the imagination — but 
a precious reality, attested by the indwelling of the 
Holy Spirit. By which ''The Spirit answers to the 
blood and tells me I am born of God." 





The Scourging of a Race. 89 

''Approved of God by miracles/' Come down to 
Bethany with me, see there the sorrowful company 
and hear Martha say to her Lord, ''If thou hadst been 
here my brother had not died." Jesus replied : "Thy 
brother shall rise again/' but said Martha, "I know 
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last 
day/' Hear the Master, with divinity sitting enthroned 
upon his face, and sparkHng in every word, as he 
exclaims : "I am the resurrection and the life ; he that 
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live/' 
See him approach the grave; he looks upon the mul- 
titude, and says : "Take ye away the stone/' His 
lips move in silent communion with the Father; he 
cries with a voice that shook the prison house of clay, 
"Lazarus come forth/' The bonds of the grave were 
burst asunder and Lazarus stepped forth. Jesus said : 
"Loose him and let him go." 

"A man approved by miracles." Yonder is blind 
Bartemaeus sitting by the highway begging. He heard 
that Jesus of Nazareth was passing, and exclaimed : 
"Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." Again 
and again he called until the compassionate Savior 
yielded to his cry and poured a blessing upon his soul. 
"Go thy way, th}^ faith hath made thee whole." Let's 
talk of the man at the pool. For thirty-eight years he 
had struggled with disease. Jesus passed by, and said : 
"Wilt thou be made whole?" The man exclaimed, 
"Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to 
put me into the pool, but while I am coming, another 
steppeth down before me. Jesus said, "Rise, take up 
thy bed and walk." 

See that poor woman who had been weakened by 
loss of blood for twelve years. She had spent all she 
had trying to be healed, but only grew worse. One 
day the crowd passed 'by and she heard that Jesus 
was there. "O !" said she, "If I can only touch the hem 
of his garment I know I shall be made whole." She 
stole quietly through the crowd ; elbowed her way to- 



90 The Scourging of a Race, 

wards Christ, reached out her bony hand, all withered 
by disease, and extended her trembling finger until it 
touched the hem of his garment aiid she was made 
whole. 

His superhuman character was attested at his birth. 
Angel messengers announced to wondering shepherds 
upon Bethlehem's plains, amidst celestial harmonies 
and manifestations of divine glory, ''That in the city 
of David was born one who should save the world." 

The circumstances attending his baptism, marked 
him as in possession of divine approval. The descent 
of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove ; the voice 
of God, giving the world notice of his pleasure in 
him — ''This is my beloved son, in whom I am well 
pleased.'' 

The signal power with which the administration of 
the ordinance is invested is a sign of heaven's highest 
approval of the Son of God. 

Christ invited faith predicated upon his works. He 
said ito Philip, "Believe me for the very work's sake ; he 
that believeth on me, the works that I do, he shall do 
also." Look upon my work and see, if ever in the 
history of the human race, you have seen stronger 
evidence that God is with a man. Christ wroug'ht 
among the people ; his miracles were performed be- 
fore their eyes ; his enemies watched and criticised, but 
he steadily pressed onward, his soul burdened with 
a divine mission and his lips quivering with the im- 
mortal word, "I must work the works of him that sertt 
me, w'hile it is day." 



The Scourging of a Race, 91 



The Baptists and the Reforma- 
tion. 



Paper Read before Class In Baptist Church Hlstorv, Wavland 
Seminar/, 1655. 



The Reformation brings us to a very important and 
auspicious epoch in the ecclesiastical affairs of the 
world — a period when the right, long oppressed and 
buried beneath the demoniacal forms of papal rule and 
authority, rises and asserts itself against wickedness 
in high places. 

Long before the i6th century the Reformation began ; 
but was slowly gathering its forces for a final over- 
throw of error; and, although its most ardent advo- 
cates were subjected to the bitterest persecution, dis- 
persed, disorganized, almost disheartened, and con- 
sidered, by their enemies, annihilated, yet, Phoenix- 
like, they rise from their ashes and present to the world 
a glorious consummation of their ideas. 

The historical world has made ^Martin Luther the 
father of this movement; but aid the 'honor, by no 
means, belongs to him. It was born in ithe minds of 
others, and had gained considerable impulse long be- 
fore it was espoused by Luther. 

The Novatians, Montanists, Paulicians, Paterines, 
Waldenses and Albigenses were among those (hun- 
dreds of whom suffered and died) who contended for 
primitive order and purity in religious worship. 

D'Aubigne, the historian of the Reformation, calls 
Huss 'The John the Baptist of the Reformation.'' He 



92 The Scourging of a Race, 

kindled a fire in the church, whose brilliance dispersed 
the darkness, and which was never entirely extin- 
guished. Huss laid the ^g^ and Luther hatched it. 

The same writer says of the Waldenses: ''From 
their mountain-heights the Waldenses protested, dur- 
ing a long series of ages, against the superstitions of 
Rome." Luther, himself, was several years prepar- 
ing to champion this movement, and the world had 
reached that status of religious sentiment, when the 
corruption of the Romish Church could no longer be 
hidden. All these cried aloud for reform, and some 
of the most powerful friends of Rome, conceding the 
consistency of the demands, joined the number of those 
who enquired after the ''old way." 

It was not until December loth, 1520, that Luther 
burned the pope's ''bull" (which aimed to destroy the 
impending reform), together with all the other docu- 
ments, in the presence of a large concourse of people. 
By this act his connection with the church of Rome 
was severed, and the advent of a new order of things 
proclaimed. The Baptists, scattered through Germany 
and other adjacent countries, hailed this act with joy, 
judging that it meant a change of public sentiment in 
their favor, and united their forces with this noble 
army whose object seemed akin to theirs — the univer- 
sal spread of New Testament principles. 

Luther proclaimed freedom from papal rule, but re- 
tained many of the elements of papal worship, and the 
Baptists proclaimed freedom from Lulther and all 
Tiuman authority; summoning their brethren of the 
same faith (of whom there were many scattered 
through. Germany) to rally to the standard of primi- 
tive purity in religion. 

Luther's ideas of a reformation were immature, and, 
therefore, partially undeveloped. He saw its necessity 
and laid its foundation, but had no idea of the magni- 
ficent superstructure to be erected thereon; a temple, 
whose courts should be open alike to Jew and Gentile ; 



The Scourging of a Race, 93 

the incense of whose altars would ascend as a sweet 
smelling savor of righteousness; whose priesthood, 
royal and pure, would be exalted to that office by 
virtue of being made anew by the blood, not of bulls 
and heifers, but of Jesus; whose acceptable sacrifices 
were a broken and contrite heart; whose worshippers 
would come from the East and West, the North and 
South, and bow neither to pope nor cardinal, priest 
nor king, but to him who saith, ''Thou shalt worship 
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." 

The Baptists found that the Reformation needed to 
be reformed ; they discovered the reformers to be de- 
cided advocates of a national form of religion; that 
some of the worst elements of the old, repudiated 
church had been retained in their creed, viz: The 
union of Church and State; the employment of secu- 
lar force to regulate religious affairs ; an over cau- 
tiousness and temporizing on momentous questions, 
etc. 

The reformers, at the beginning of the movement, 
were favorable to immersion as baptism; yet, they 
lapsed into error, professing one thing and practicing 
another. This illogical and dangerous position was 
productive of evil. Disputes ensued; public debates 
were held; books were pubHshed, defining and de- 
fending their position; and as the opponents had the 
power in their hands, what could not be gained by 
argument was accomplished by the sword. 

The Baptists stood alone in their position toward 
the quasi-reformation. They were comparatively 
weaker than their opponents in mumber, talents, in- 
fluence and everything except a perfect knowledge of 
the doctrines of Christ, and a steadfast determination 
to contend for the same. 

Luther was the recognized head of the reformers, 
and many powerful princes rallied to his standard. 
It is a lamentable fact that the leaders of the reforma- 
tion were, themselves, imbued with the persecuting 



94 The Scourging of a Race, 

spirit. The first edict was published at Zuridh (1520) 
against anabaptism, and a penalty of a silver mark 
was set upon all who were rebaptized; but ''truth is 
mighty and will prevail." The Baptists, continued to 
increase, and an additional decree was issued, that all 
persons professing anabaptism or harboring the pro- 
fession of the same should be punished with death by 
being drowned. Many suffered the penalty, but the 
remainder held on defiantly. How true the prophecy, 
"A man's foes shall be they of his own house." All these 
inhuman measures for the suppression of anabaptists 
had the consent of Luther and his associates, and re- 
sulted in greatly injuring the Lutheran cause. Cath- 
olicis. Princes, Lutherans, and Calvinists were united 
in their efforts to destroy these anabaptizers. 

The views held by Baptists that created persecution 
were as follows : 

They believed in civil liberty, as opposed to the 
authority of magistrates; that the Scriptures were 
a complete revelation from God, and as such, a per- 
fect rule of faith and practice — not to be interpreted 
by any theological school, averring that believers had 
the right to private interpretation; that churches had 
the right of self-government — this opposed clerical 
authority; that a personal profession of faith is a pre- 
requisite to church membership ; that all creeds, rites, 
ceremonies and parochial divisions should be abolished. 

The statesmen were prejudiced by the first; the 
clergy by the second and third, and the reformers and 
catholics by the remainder, hence, they made enemies 
of all. Verily, ''This is the sect everywhere spoken 
against." 

W'hen the morning star of religious liberty ushered 
the dawn of Reformation, how brightly the sun shone 
for the Baptists; but alas! ere they had long enjoyed 
its genial and soul animating rays ; while yet they view 
this felicitious land, the somber clouds of error darken 



The Scourging of a Race, 95 

the prospect, and the sun that rose so full* of promise 
set only to be followed by a long night of religious 
controversy, persecution and bloodshed ; the dhief 
actors in the nefarious work being professing Chris- 
tians, blinded by a desire for ascendency, and urged 
by mistaken ideas of moral right and wrong. 

For Luther we have no word of censure ; his motives 
we would not impugn. He lived in an age when men 
were more largely moved by their baser passions than 
by those loftier sentiments which are the outgrowth oi 
strict adherence to moral law. It is with feelings of 
pity rather than indignation, that we think of the great 
• reformer; pity that he, so thoroughly convinced of the 
consummate corruption of the Romish Church, should 
not have moral courage enough to eliminate some of 
its pernicious doctrines from his own religious creed, 
and cling to other spirits of the same household seven 
times worse than those thrown off. 

The religious world needed a radical reformation; 
one commencing at the heart and with the flow of life 
blood permeating the entire system ; none other would 
m'eet the exigencies of the hour. The evil existed and 
could only be overcome by an unwavering faith in 
God. This could then and can nozv be accomplished 
only by a suppression of differing opinions as to 
methods, and hearty uniting of all reformative forces. 
There was one great lesson the reformers had then 
to learn, and the church, in its effort to secure peace 
and prosperity within its borders, has now to take in — 
the lesson of compromise. 

The history of the Reformation would have been as 
clear as a cloudless sky had Luther regarded the opin- 
ions of others, and yielded some points to those whose 
hearts would beat in unison with his. We do not urge 
compromise on the church as a reformative agent to 
the sacrifice of any principle of truth, but men are 
liable to mistake mere desire for controling influence 
or leadership for principle, and make pets of these 



96 The Scourging of a Race, 

false hopes, often being led to very base and inglorious 
deeds. 

In stating the position of Baptists toward the Refor- 
mation, historians have so discolored it as to im- 
press the world with the idea that they were a class 
of fanatic§ whose rise occurred during the Reforma- 
tion, or was an outgrowth of the peasant war, which 
was a revolutionary movement in southern and cen- 
tral Germany, contemporaneous with the Reformation 
of Luther and Zwingli. It was preceded by many insur- 
rections and, although the peasants had right on their 
side, the war failed, being ill advised and badly man- 
aged. The manifesto of the peasants told a miserable 
tale of oppression and wrong. It covered twelve arti- 
cles in which their grievances and demands were set 
forth. They claimed only the restoration of rights for- 
merly possessed, and contained demands whic'h were 
new, yet in accordance with the times. Wherever the 
insurrection spread these articles were proclaimed; 
sometimes with modifications to make them acceptable 
to the nobility. Thomas Munzer, a pious, learned and 
eloquent preacher, who had been a priest, but became 
a disciple of Luther, championed the cause of the 
peasants. The war was by no means a Baptist affair ; 
though the enemies of that sect, because of Munzer's 
connection with it, took occasion to raise a storm of 
indignation against them. This persecution raged 
fiercely and never entirely ceased during the Reforma- 
tion period; but the Baptists held on defiantly — scat- 
tered by persecution, the hand of the Lord was with 
them. 

Historically and technically speaking, the Baptists 
are not Protestants; they had no share in any of the 
measures from which that name i's derived. They al- 
ways cointended for the primitive purity of religion, and 
though others became corrupt in doctrine and prac- 
tice, they held the even tenor of their way. Here, per- 
haps, is one of the chief causes of their persecution; 



The Scourging of a Race, 97 

for let an individual oppose public sentiment, when it 
is wrongly conceived, and he will 'be made the object 
of the most bitter persecution by those who are its mis- 
taken devotees. 

True, the Baptists have always acted with the Pro- 
testants in opposition to the corrupt doctrines of the 
Roman hierarchy, but only in a general sense. They 
could not have consistently adopted Lutheran views, 
since they were from a scriptural standpoint, tainted 
with the corruption of Romanism; therefore, they 
have uniformly protested against every phase of the 
Protestant religion that has symboHzed with the old 
establishment. 

Did the Reformation in any way help the Baptists? 
It gave strength to their weak forces in opposing the 
Catholic Church. By their many persecutions it made 
them more widespread in numbers and influence; by 
strict adherence to their principles, it developed and 
showed in them Christian manhood and womanhood, 
and helped them to transmit to posterity deeds which 
might swell their bosom with pride, and become an 
incentive to others to do likewise. It showed to the 
w^orld the evils that follow the union of Church and 
State, and brought over in the Baptist ranks many 
mighty statesmen and scholars. 

The Baptists were pre-eminently fitted for the part 
they played during the Reformation. They had always 
stood aloof from the corrupting influence of Roman- 
ism and, therefore, had none of its principles to reject. 
They cannot be called dissenters in the common ac- 
ceptation of that term, for they had never been con- 
nected with any other church as a body, nor had they 
collectively seceded from the Roman Catholic Church, 
but they were strict adherents to New Testament prin- 
ciples. 

This spirit of fidelity to the doctrines of our Lord, 
and high estimate of the New Testament have char- 
acterized the Baptists in all ages, and in whatever coun- 
6 



98 The Scourging of a Race, 

tries they have existed, or by whatever name they have 
been known. This is their fortress ; remove them from 
its protection and they are left defenceless, abandoned 
to the vain speculations of philosophy or the spurious 
ideas of infidelity. 

This is the impregnable foundation on which they 
stand and defy the storms of public opinion falsely 
conceived, or the floods of prejudice, come they with 
whatever force they may. 

Thus, as the mountain stream may find obstacles to 
prevent its continuous course, and as it grows higher 
and more widespread wiiii the additional inpouring 
tide until it becomes mighty enough to break the bar- 
rier and resume its onward march, so the Baptists com- 
mencing in Jordan, have silently and almost unseen 
made their way down the mountain slopes of centuries, 
whose history is marked by persecution, bloodshed 
and martyrdom; impeded in their progress by the 
edicts of kings and princes, popes and cardinals, priest- 
hood and clergy, until they rise by means of the in- 
coming tide of right sentiment to a height sufficiently 
exalted, and an influence sufficiently strong to overleap 
every barrier and hasten to a glorious consummation. 



The Scourging of a Race, 99 



Seven Seals. 



Preached at Mt. Bethel Baptist Association, in Session at 
Vt. Ave. Baptist ClAurch, G, W. Lee, D. D., Pastor, 1901. 



**And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, 
a book written within and on the back side, sealed with seven 
seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice. 
Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof ? 
And no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth, 
was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I 
wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to 
read the book, neither to look thereon. 

**And one of the elders said unto me. Weep not : behold the 
Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to 
open the book, and to loose the seals thereof. ' ' — Rev, v, 7-5. 

Our text presents a view of the uncreated God, hig"h 
and lifted upon his throne. He sits in absolute su- 
premacy and surpassing dignity, administering the 
affairs of his government. The enraptured apostle had 
seen him in this same vision, upon his throse, attended 
by legions of angelic spirits, and associated v^ith the 
four and twenty elders, who sat upon the seats of 
victors, clothed in spotless purity and wearing golden 
crowns upon their heads, while there encircled this 
mighty place of his judicial abode a rainbow, symbol 
of the eternal covenant, made between him and the re- 
deemed of earth. Now the sacred scene unfolds, and 
the apostle looks somewhat closer at the divine per- 
sonage, behoMing him with a book in 'his hand, whose 
appearance was that of deep and inscrutable mystery, 



loo The Scourging of a Race, 

a book written within and sealed with seven seals. 
Mark you, whatever was contained in this mighty 
volume was to be reached only upqn the unloosing of 
the seals. It seemed to be out of the reach of mortal 
vision, for it was sealed with seven seals,' denoting 
the completeness with which its message was hidden 
from mortal sight. 

The books among the ancients were long pieces of 
parchment, rolled upon a long stick, as we roll silks. 
In tliis case there were seven volumes contained in 
the one roll, each of which was sealed, so that upon 
opening the first, the second appeared sealed and so on 
until the seventh had been reached. The book sym- 
bolized the divine counsels, whose eternal and im- 
mutable decrees were to affect the world, for all time. 

God's purposes toward this world are stated and 
fixed. They are as complete as the writing of a book, 
which comes from the hand of its author. There is 
always mystery connected with a book, until its pages 
have been read and its story unfolded to the seeker of 
knowledge. So the apostle would convey the idea that 
this book, held in the hand of him who sat upon the 
throne, contained the history of God's dealings with 
men; his eternal decrees that were to affect all things, 
from the separate sand grain upon the seashore to 
the longest and ^highest mountain range ; from the dia- 
mond dew drop to the mightest ocean, that heaved and 
lashed itself in maddened fury; from the most distant 
planet that burns and blazes in the heavens above to 
the one on which we live and move and have our per- 
petual being. All the destiny of men was contained in 
that volume. Wrapped in its sacred folds was the rise 
and fall of empires and mighty republics ; the flourish 
and decay of kingdoms ; the crash of revolutions ; and 
the blasting of human hopes and fears. 

Wrapped in that volume was the complete record of 
every man, who should tread the courts of earth, from 
the imperial robed monarch to the shivering beggar — 



The Scourging of a Race. loi 

the wise and reverend; the scholar and fool; the 
warrior and statesman; the civilized and savage; the 
rich, rolling in the splendid magnificence of his wealth, 
and the poor, pinched and bitten by poverty. 

Herein was contained the long list of Christianity's 
conquests. The silent heart struggles of the saints of 
all ages. The warfare of the people of God, from the 
infant age of God's Zion, when patriarchs stood amidst 
the dim and flickering light of truth and pointed their 
trembling finger toward the habitation of God. The 
prophetic age, when lifted in beatific vision, or touched 
with prophetic fire, they saw the sceptre departing from 
Judah and the coming Shiloh, with the gathering of the 
people at his feet ; or Hke an Ezekiel, a ''wheel within 
a wheel," or the living creatures full of eyes, denoting 
God's providence toward the people whom he had 
created. It contained a full and complete revelation 
of the meaning of ''The valley of dry bones," when 
bone came to bone and sinew to sinew ; and a literal 
fulfillment of the prophetic utterance by Isaiah, the 
evangelistic prophet, who in the midst of spiritual 
ecstacy saw the Messiah born and cried, "Unto us a 
child is born, unto us a son is given, and the govern- 
ment shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall 
be called wonderful!' O ! the book of him who sat 
upon the throne! Divine counsels! Divine judg- 
ments ! 

Containing all in the divine mind that prophets ever 
uttered; all that the priesthood with their ceremonies 
and sacrifices ever prefigured ; all that the Christ ever 
accomplished in his earthly ministry among men; all 
that mighty blessing secured in his death and all the 
opening glories and unspeakable triumphs secured in 
his resurrection and exaltation. 

Would you know how Christ's religion is to revolu- 
tionize the thoughts of men ? Open the seals. Would 
you know how it is to lift the gates of empires oflf 
their hinges ; turn the streams of centuries out of their 



I02 The Scourging of a Race. 

channels, and by his bleeding wounds, melt the stub- 
born heart of humanity? Open the seals, and read 
that, ''If I be lifted up from -the earth I will draw all 
men unto me/' God holds this book in his right hand 
to declare his authority and resolution to execute all 
the purposes therein recorded. 

Nothing can thwart the purposes of God. He alone 
has the power to execute what he designs. He can 
create and destroy. He openeth and none shutteth. 
Here is the eternal security of the saint. His un- 
liimited power, coupled with an unchanging purpose 
to eventually save men, is the secret of strength to the 
believer. Although it is sealed, yet he knows what it 
contains and is resolved to carry out every detail. 

It is known to none but himself.. Not even Gabriel, 
the favored archangel, who stands so close to the 
throne, can conceive the mighty purpose wrapped in 
the divine mind. Well may the apostle say, ''O! the 
depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowl- 
edge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments 
and his ways are past finding out.'' 

But the apostle saw a strong angel and heard his 
proclamation. An angel of great eminence, with a 
mighty voice, challenges all creatures of the universe 
to try the strength of their wisdom in opening the 
coiinsels of God. I seem to think I hear the mighty 
voiced angel cry, ''O ye ! O ye ! O ye ! in heaven 
amidst the innumerable hosts and orders ; ye who were 
witnesses at the birth of the earth and raised an anthem 
when the mighty God dropped from his creative finger 
man, the noblest of his handiwork ; ye who bow upon 
your faces ready to do Jehovah's will ; ye, all ye ; angel, 
archangel, seraphim, cherubim; all inhabitants of 
heaven from immortal hills, across celestial plains, 
amidst glorified hosts, in the valley of rejoicing; all 
ye in heaven, harken : 'If any thinks himself able, 
either to explain or execute the counsels of God, let 
him stand forth and attempt it.' 



The Scourging of a Race, 103 

"O ye ! O ye ! O ye ! Amidst the caverns of the 
damned, chained 'in adamantine chains and penal 
fires;'' ye who first broke peace in heaven, and faith, 
till then unbroken, and in proud, rebellious arms, drew 
after him the third part of heaven's sons, harken unto 
me: 'If any think himself able either to explain or 
execute the counsels of Gk)d let him stand forth and 
attempt it.' " 

Thus the mighty angel cried until the challenge 
rang through heaven, earth, and hell: ''Who is 
worthy f' 

"Say, heavenly powers, where shall we find such love? 
Which of ye will be mortal to redeem man's mortal crime? 
He asked, but all the heavenly choir stood mute, 
* * * And silence was in heaven." 

When the apostle saw that no man came forward he 
feared that the counsels of God would never be dis- 
closed, and in his natural itenderness and love for the 
church ''he wept much." Tears flowed thick and fast. 

John wept at the thought of a lost humanity. He 
saw pass before him in panoramic order Gk)d's handi- 
work — ^man fearfully and wonderfully made, bruised 
and mangled by the fall ; bearing the awful mark of 
God's displeasure ; man, without God and hope in the 
world ; man, plunged in the lowest depths of misery 
and sin, and he wept great tears of sorrow. 

He saw his fellows, driven away from happiness 
and heaven. Oh, so ruined, so lost, without a pitying 
eye or a helping hand, for it was a vision like the poet's 
when he said : 

''Plunged in a gulf of dark despair, 

We 'Wretched sinners lay; 
Without one cheerful beam of hope, 

Or spark of glimmering day." 

And "he wept much." 



I04 The Scourging of a Race. 

He saw the gates of heaven barred against men for- 
ever, without any hope of salvation. For had not 
heaven been searched? Had not angelic cohorts with 
their strength and intelligence declared themselves un- 
worthy? Had not earth bowed its head in utter help- 
lessness at the stupendous work of redemption? There 
was none found. None found. Not one. 

But the apostle is not permitted to weep long. Dry 
up thy tears, O man of God. Let every fear be driven 
far from ithee. One of the elders approaches with 
joyful tidings, saying, ''Weep not; behold the lion of 
the tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed 
to open the book and to loose the seals thereof.'' 

Christ is here set forth as "a lion" of Judah. He 
was to come out of the loins of Judah. The dying 
patriarch in the world's infancy, said, ''The sceptre 
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from be- 
tween his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall 
the gathering of the people be." 

He is the lion to denote his superior strength. Salva- 
tion required a strong Savior. He must break the 
powers of sin and darkness and bring life and immor- 
tality to light. Isaiah saw him in a vision coming from 
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, glorious in 
his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength. 
And in answer to the prophet's question, he declares 
himself "mighty to save." "I have trodden the wine- 
press alone and of the people there is none with me." 

As a Savior, there is no sin too old, none too great, 
that he cannot wash away by his atoning blood. As a 
lion, he becomes a fit emblem of kingly authority and 
power. He had all power in his hands, for his enemies 
were many and strong. He must overcome the arch- 
enemy of the soul — Satan. This he did. From the 
time he met him upon the mountain until he rose in 
triumphant grandeur from the grave and ascended to 
heaven, he prevailed against the enemy. As a lion he 
was a hero. He drove back every invading foe and 



The Scourging of a Race, 105 

planted the standard of the cross upon every battle- 
field. At his command disease fled from its victim, 
the sightless eyes of the blind were opened, the ears of 
the deaf were unstopped, the grave gave up its inmate, 
and the tongue of the dumb was made to sing. 

He met death upon the rugged battlefield of Calvary 
and amidst dying groans and the mighty upheavals of 
nature, extracted his power and left him vanquished 
upon the field. 

''Break off your tears, ye saints, and tell 
How 'high our great Deliverer reigns; 

Sing how he spoiled the hosts of hell. 
And led the tyrant Death in chains. 

"Say, 'Live forever, glorious King, 
Born to redeem and strong to save ;' 

Then ask, 'O Death, where is thy sting? 
And wlhere thy victory, boasting Grave ?' " 

John saw him as ''the lion of the tribe of Judah and 
the root of David/' He was a lion in his divine nature, 
because he was King of kings and Lord of lords, the 
Alpha and Omega, he who liveth and was dead and 
behold he is alive forever more and hath the keys of 
death and hell. A lion in divine nature and the root 
of David in his human nature. 

For he was the man Christ Jesus — no less a God 
because of humianity. There -was a mysterious union 
between the two natures. He must, as a man, satisfy 
the law, contained in the book whose seals he is about 
to open. As the God-man, he prevailed, became the 
victor of every battlefield, led captivity captive and 
gave gifts to the children of men. 

This same John saw him ''riding a white horse, 
crowned with many crowns, with a bow in his hand." 
Isaiah in speaking of the conquests of the Gospel, said, 
"He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied." 
Paul, in the ecstacy of faith, declared, "At the name of 
Jesus, every knee shall bow ^ ^ * and every 



io6 The Scourging of a Race, 

tongue confess/' And the poet lifted to the heights 
of inspiration, sang : 

"See how the conqueror mounts aloft, 

And to his father flies ; 
With scars of honor in his flesh. 

And itriu/mph in his eyes. 

"The rising God forsakes the tomb, 
Up to his father's court he flies ; 

Cherubic legions guard him home, 

And shout him welcome to the skies." 

This Lion of Judah, this Root of David, this Rose of 
Sharon, this Lily of the Valley, this Bright and Morn- 
ing Star, hath prevailed — where? Back in the un- 
dated spaces of eternity. Back in the triune council 
of eternity. Back in the place where he sat enfolded 
in uncreated glory, while the draperies of unlimited 
space fell in dreadful folds and ineffable splendor upon 
him. Away back in the beginning. Before flying 
clouds or morning stars sang, or corner-stone of earth 
was laid. Even before the sanctities of heaven bowed 
at his feet in adoring praise. Jesus, the Lion, had 
eternal victory marked upon his forehead. Well may 
the elder say, ''Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, 
the Root of Daviid hath prevailed.'' Overcome every 
enemy. Brushed away every diffioulty. Triumphed 
over death and hell. This same John saw him later, 
with eyes like flames of fire, clothed with a vesture 
dipped in blood, with the armies of heaven following 
his train, riding upon white horses. And he had 
on his vesture and on his thigh a name written. King 
of kings, and Lord of lords. O ! the victories of the 
cross. Kings have laid aside imperial robes; princes 
have given up royal authority; wealth has laid itself 
upon the altar of service; the beggar no longer hun- 
gry ; the outcast finds a home ; the weary find eternal 
rest ; the sorrowing has his tears wiped away, for 



The Scourging of a Race. 107 

"Blessings abound where'er he reigns, 
The joyful prisoner (bursts his chains ; 
Tihe weary finds eternal rest, 
And all the sons of want are blest." 

All this to secure heaven to the believer. Heaven is 
a prepared place for the people, prepared by ithe blood 
of the lamb. This same John saw them as numberless 
as the sands of the seashore. 

A number no man could number ; ten thousand times 
ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. Washed, 
robed, crowned, employed in worshiping. They cried, 
''Thou art worthy T They sing the song of Moses 
and the lamb. O \ the employment of the redeemed ! 



io8 The Scourging of a Race, 



What Next? 



/Xddress Delivered to the Graduating Class of 1902 of Virginia 
Theological Seminorv and College, Lvnchburg, Va. 



I wish to congratulate you this evening, young ladies 
and gentlemen, upon having successfully performed 
the tasks incident to student life and upon the fact 
that you come at this hour fresh, vigorous, and deter- 
mined to face the stern realities and manifold activities 
of life, compared with which your past has been but a 
pleasant dream. 

This night marks a new era in your lives. Now you 
begin the history-making period — a history that shall 
not only tell of your capabilities, but shall record how 
thoroughly you have touched humanity and how much 
better the world was made for your having lived and 
wrought. 

The world's history is a divine poem, of which the 
history of every nation is a canto and every man a 
word. Its strains have been pealing along down the 
centuries, and though there have mingled the discords 
of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Chris- 
tian philosopher and historian — ^the humble listener — 
there has been a divine melody through the song, which 
speaks of hope and halcyon days to come. 

"For he who gave this vast machine to roll, 
Breathed life in them, in us a reasoning soul ; 
That kindred feelings ^might our state improve, 
And mutual wants conduct to mutual love." 

When the devotee of the Ganges would seek the 
favor of her God, at eventide she commits to the cur- 



The Scourging of a Race. 109 

rent of the river a lighted lamp and watches with 
beating heart its course and fate. If it sinks she re- 
turns sorrowing, for her God as not with her. If it 
floats till lost in the distance and darkness, she returns 
rejoicing, for her sacrifice is accepted. 

You are -those lamps, which the race has committed 
to the stream of time. Its offering to that God who 
rules its current. If you shall fail amidst the tempta- 
tions and trials of life ; if you shall stray from the paths 
of truth and virtue, its offering will stand condemned. 
But if so long as Hfe shall last your lights shall shine 
on the turbulent voyage, then will the race know that 
its sacrifice 'has been well pleasing to the God of 
nations. 

You are to be congratulated on coming upon the 
stage at such an auspicious hour. In the flush of nine- 
'teenth century glory, an age big with significance to 
the human family; when science has searched out 
the deep things of nature and disentombed the memor- 
ials of the everlasting hills ; has discovered the secrets 
of the most distant stars and vanquished time and 
space ; taught the vapors to toil, the lightning to speak, 
and the winds to worship; 'Stolen the witchery of 
earth and sky, and gathered them into her enchanted 
palace, and by books have echoed the crash of revolu- 
tions and the silent thunders of thought. 

At this significant hour, so full of the accomplish- 
ment of the past; the attainment of the present; and 
prophetic of a glorious fruitage of the future, you 
come to join hands with the battle-scarred warriors 
upon the field, whose motto is: ''The world' for God 
and his Christ.'' And now, confronted by the mighty 
conditions, I exhort you to — 

First, Be courageous in the performance of duty. 
The world appreciates and honors courage; the cour- 
age of Christianity, which sustained martyrs in the 
amphitheatre, at the stake and on the rack ; the cour- 
age of patriotism, which inspired millions in our own 



no The Scourging of a Race. 

land to fill up with their own bodies the yawning 
chasm, which imperilled the republic; the courage of 
humanity, which ministers to the sick and dying, defy- 
ing the ravages of disease and laughing at the horrors 
or death. It perpetuates the memory of the oourageous 
man, in hammered brass, carved stone, and moulded 
bronze. In a people, conditioned like the American 
Negro, the highest type of courage is needed to act 
well your part. 

I would exhort you again — 

Second, Be thorough ; carry into life not only a suffi- 
ciency of knowledge, but more than a sufficiency. If 
you are not too large, you are too small to meet the 
emergencies that arise in the battle of life. This will 
make it necessary for you to keep abreast of the times. 
Ready to meet its demands at any turn; ready to 
grasp and hold any and all of its opportunities for 
usefulness and glory. 

I would exhort you again — 

Third, Not to work and act as a Negro, but as a 
man. The lamented Garfield once said in addressing 
a delegation of Negroes : 'Termit no man to praise 
you because you are black. Let it be understood that 
you are ready and willing to work out your 'salvation 
by your own energy, your own worth, and your own 
faith in God.'' 

The world calls long and loud for men — ^men who 
have broken away from the dead things of the past 
and are capable of grappling the intricate problems of 
the present, in order to transmit a safe and sure policy 
to future generations; men who face the untrodden 
paths of the future, untrammeled and unfettered ; men 
who rise above ''the stings and arrows of outrageous 
fortune," and with unwavering faith in God trample 
down all prejudice of race and condition; men who 
laugh at impediments and, like Napoleon before Alpine 
heights, that stood like impregnable barriers before 
him, cry, ''There shall be no Alps Y' 



The Scourging of a Race. iii 

Men prepared for the occasion when it arrives, 
whether it be the discovery of a new world ; the turn- 
ing of the tide of all history, like Dewey at Manila or 
Schley at Santiago, or the settling of centuries of 
wrong and oppression, like the gallant black heroes of 
El Caney and San Juan Hill. 

Manly men is the demand of the age. None others 
need apply, for none others will be equal to the task 
set before them. 

I would exhort you again — 

To 'Season your life work with the principles and 
practices of Christianity. 

A godless education is the danger line in mental 
development. Education with no God is responsible 
for the great army of infidels and sceptics that seek to 
undermine the teachings of him who spake as never 
man did. It is irregular development and therefore 
dangerous in its nature and tendency. Christianity 
gives to the world its best types of morality and cul- 
ture. Now the more of God you put into your lives 
the more power you will have over men. The greatest 
men who have left an ineffaceable record upon the 
pages of history are those who sought first the king- 
dom of heaven and linked this to their intellectuahty. 
The great apostle to the Gentiles gives the proper ex- 
hortation in these words, ''Add to your faith ^ ^ ^ 
knowledge.'' A consecrated education is the demand 
of the hour. This is the secret force that will trans- 
form human character and make the world a veritable 
heaven. 



112 The Scourging of a Race, 

Eulogy on William J. Simmons, 
D. D., LL D. 



Delivered at the nemorlal Exercises of the Sundav School 
Lyceum, held December 7, 1 590. 



Mr. Prksidi:nt : There was a period in Grecian his- 
tory denomiinated the heroic age. The mystic spirit of 
that classic race had invested men with the dignity of 
gods. So wonderful had been their achievements, so 
exalted their career, that the mere attributes of ordi- 
nary humanity were not sufficient to account for the 
virtues they possessed. Their names were inscribed 
upon the warrior's shield, lifted up as the silent guar- 
dians of the public weal, adorned th^ temples dedicated 
to justice; for in all places and on all occasions where 
patriotism sought an example, the heroes of classic 
Greece claimed the reverence and afifection of the 
people. 

We come to-day as intelligent inhabitants of a hemi- 
sphere unknown to the ancient kingdoms of the world 
when truth was veiled in fiction and before the revela- 
tion of that superior wisdom to mankind, to give higher 
witness to human character, and learn anew the les- 
sons of the value, attaching itself to the self-sacrificing 
spirit; the consecrated service and the immortal re- 
ward of the public benefactor. It is right that we 
should pause in our avocations, and while laying our 
garlands upon his tomb, give fitting expression to the 
ithoughts which instinctively well up in our hearts. 
We can not repress our grief when a good man dies. 



The Scourging of a Race, 113 

Society feels the vacuum when an educated mind is 
withdrawn forever from its service and a ray of broad- 
est light expires, furnished by that inward and im- 
mortal lamp, which, when its mission upon earth has 
ended is trimmed anew by angel hands to shine forever 
in 'the land beyond. The mind of man in its sphere 
and destiny is essentially immortal. It is true it has 
its periods of youth and old age, its rise, its progress, 
its decline. Yet, like the oak whose withered branches 
have withstood the storms and gales of centuries, when 
its leaves are strewn by wailing winds and angry blasts, 
from the small but gradual unfolding of that vital sub- 
stance spring forth into life and beauty as a new crea- 
tion the buds and blossoms of another year. 

Death's hurricane has swept through the forest of 
humanity and a stately tree has fallen, rich in the foli- 
age and fruits of its gathered years, at once an orna- 
ment, a beauty and a blessing. A stricken family be- 
wails its loved one lost; a sovereign state mourns an 
illustrious son ; a great race, in the infancy of its pow- 
ers, but in the midst of mighty development, when it 
could ill afford to release its hold, stands with un- 
covered head at his opened grave; while the largest 
evangelical denomination on this continent, with its 
wealth of piety, intelligence, scholarship and material 
worth, bows with tearful eyes and sorrowing hearts, 
and mourns the loss of its greatest leader. 

William J. Simmons, D. D., LL. D., of Louisville, 
Ky., departed this life October 30, 1890, at Cane 
Springs, Ky., at mid^day, in the midst of a life of use- 
fulness and in the fullness of his powers. He was born 
of slave parents, June 29, 1849, 1^ Charleston, S. C. 
At an early period in his life, interested parties hurried 
the mother and three children northward, without the 
protection of a husband and father, to iDCgin a long 
siege of poverty. 

They landed in Philadelphia and were met by an 
uncle, Alex. Tardiff, who generously cared for the 
7 



114 The Scourging of a Race. 

mother, William, Emeline, and Anna, as well as he 
could. While in Philadelphia, they were harassed by 
slave traders who semed to burrow them out of their 
hiding place. Disease laid its hand upon them. 

Disasters come not singly, 
But as if they watched and waited, 
iScanning one another's motions, 
When the iir&t descends, the others 
■Follow, follow, gathering flock-wise, 
'\ Round their victim, sick and wounded, 

First a shadow, then a sorrow. 
Till tihe air is dark with anguish. 

In the garret of a three story brick house they lived, 
huddled together, stricken with smallpox, almost des- 
titute of food, fearing to call for medical attendance 
lest they should be carried back into slavery. While 
death stared them in the face, fugitive slave hunters 
rapped at the door of the front room. These inhuman 
beasts were misled, and shortly after the family was 
left at Roxbury, Pa. (the uncle having gone to sea), 
where the faithful mother toiled night and day at wash- 
ing, to support her children. They returned to Phila- 
delphia, and from there moved to Bordentown, Pa., 
where in 1862, the son, William, was apprenticed to a 
dentist. The doctor was kind to him and William soon 
learned so thoroughly the profession that he often 
operated upon some of the best families in the city. 
But the spirit of the doctor changed and William was 
treated unkindly ; becoming disgusted he ran away and 
enlisted in the Forty-first United States Colored troops. 
His army life was not uneventful; he took part in 
battles around Petersburg, Hatches Run and Appo- 
mattox Court-house, and was present at the surrender 
of Lee, the crisis out of which our own happier cycle 
of years has been evolved. He was discharged Sep- 
tember 13, 1865, and in i?>66-6y worked as journey- 
man at his trade for Dr. W. H. Longfellow, a colored 
dentist of Philadelphia. 



The Scourging of a Race. 115 

He was converted in 1867 and joined the white 
Baptist Church in Bordentown. Although a colored 
man in the church, he was treated kindly and when 
his call to the ministry was made known, they rallied 
to his assistance and supported him in school for three 
years. The New Jersey State Educational Society 
aided him at Madison University, where he gradu- 
ated in 1868, taking the Academic course. September, 
1868, found him matriculated at Rochester University, 
and in that city, he labored with the Baptist Church as 
pastor. In 1870, he entered Howard University, grad- 
uating in 1873. 

While a student he sihowcd much aptness to teach, 
in conducting a school at a place called Bunkers' Hill, 
rebuilding almost from nothing, and the school board 
promoting him to the principalship of a much larger 
building, with several hundred scholars. This was the 
Hillsdale public sdhool. District of Columbia. Imme- 
diately after graduating he took Horace Greely's advice 
and went West to Arkansas. There he was examined 
and secured a State certificate from the Hon. Super- 
intendent of Education, J. C. Corbin, but soon re- 
turned to Washington. 

He married Josephine A., daughter of John and 
Caroline Silence, in Washington, D. C, August 25, 
1874, and then went South. He went to Florida in 
1874 and invested in lands and oranges. While in 
Ocala, (1879) he was ordained a deacon and was 
licensed to preach. 

He was principal of Howard Academy, deputy 
county clerk and city commissioner, a member of the 
District Congressional Committee, and stumped the 
State for Hayes and Wheeler. After this, he returned 
to Washington, and taught in the public schools, till 
1879, when he left to accept the pastorate of the First 
Baptist Church, Lexington, Ky. In September, 1880, 
he was called to the presidency of the Normal and 
Theological Institute of Louisvile, Ky., a school under 



ii6 The Scourging of a Race. 

the control of the General Baptist Association of Ken- 
tucky. At that time the school had thirteen pupils, 
two teachers and an empty treasury. Says the Bowl- 
ing Green Watchman, a state paper edited by Rev. 
Eugene Evans : 'Tew men of Prof. Simmons' ability 
and standing would have been willing to risk their 
future in an enterprise like the Normal and Theologi- 
cal Institution, an enterprise without capital and but 
few friends. 

"When he was elected president, every cloud van- 
is-hed and the sunshine of success could be seen on 
every side." 

As an educator, he had no superiors. Discarding 
specialism in education, he claimed that the ideal man- 
hood and womanhood cannot be narrowed down to 
any one sphere of action, but that the whole being 
must receive proper development. No boy or girl 
came within his influence without feeling a desire to 
become useful and great. He infused new life and 
inspiration into the least ambitious. No flower within 
his reach wasted ''its sweetness on the desert air." If 
there were elements of usefulness in those around him, 
he trained and utilized them. 

As college president, his ability was excellent. He 
always had the admiration and respect of his students 
and his fellow teachers were proud of him, trusting to 
his judgment and abiding by his decisions. He ex- 
tended the tenderest sympathy to poor and deserving 
students, rewarding the faithful in discharge of duty 
and encouraging those who did something. Septem- 
ber 29, 1882, he was elected editor of the American 
Baptist, As an editor, Bishop H. M. Turner says of 
him: "He brings before the public every live issue 
of the day. His editorials are racy, versatile and logi- 
cal. He contends for rights and cries down wrongs. 
He is extensively copied and has the personal respect 
of every editor and prominent man in the country." 
A man of forcible character and deep convictions must 



The Scourging of a Race, 117 

reveal himself is ihis writings. His pen pictures are 
characterized by a rugged strength which takes hold 
of the reader and fixes the thought in memory, more 
than elaboration and flourishes which soothe and 
please, but pass ithrough the mind as water through the 
sieve. 

Dr. H. L. MovthonsQ^.C orresponding Secretary of 
the American Baptist Home Mission Society and 
Editor of Home Mission Monthly, writes : 

''Among the colored Baptists of the United States, 
one man by general consent has stood pre-eminent. 
He was Dr. William J. Simmons, of Louisvile, Ky., 
whose death in the midst of his usefulness and the 
fullness of his powers, took place, as by a striking 
coincidence, at mid-day of October 30, at Cane 
Springs, Ky. The tidings of this sad event produced 
profound sorrow among hundreds of thousands who 
had rightly regarded him as one of the foremost men 
of his race and of his generation. Multitudes of white 
Baptists at the North, who have known him and his 
work, who have been mightily moved by his marvel- 
ous oratorical ability, mourn with their colored breth- 
ren or the whole country the great loss sustained by 
his death. In him, geniality, humor, and wit, were 
blended with tremendous earnestness, deep seriousness, 
and consecration of every power to the noblest pur- 
poses. He was a fervent Christian, and a staunch 
Baptist. He had a great versatility; was fertile in 
expedients to accomplish his ends; had ready com- 
mand of his resources in an emergency; was a suc- 
cessful preacher and educator; possessed unusual or- 
ganizing ability and leadership; and was a marvel 
of energy and industry in carrying forward the many 
enterprises is which he was engaged. There was a 
contagiousness in his enthusiasm. His soul was ever 
aglow with high ideals. With a strong and vehement 
nature, yet under great provocation and in circum- 



ii8 The Scourging of a Race. 

stances calculated to evoke invective utterances, his 
Christian self-control and patience and magnanimity, 
as many can testify, were most admirable." 

Now what were the antecedents of all this? Was he 
a favored child of fortune that at forty years of age 
he should have attained so commanding a position 
among his own people and for years should have been 
so widely and favorably known through the land ? By 
no means. Rather, his career is a bright illustration 
of the heroic, indomitable spirit which almost single- 
handed, with limited resources, and encountering bit- 
ter blasts of race prejudice, hewed its way through and 
over Alpine difficulties. In him we have ample evi- 
dence that here, on American soil, a new type of negro 
character is being evolved, corresponding in many 
respects to the typical character of the white Ameri- 
can. 

In 1881 he received the degree of A. M. from his 
alma mater and the degree of D. D. from Wilberforce 
University, Ohio, in 1883. In 1882, he was elected 
Commissioner of the New Orleans Exposition for the 
exhibits of the colored people, and was the organizer 
:of the National Baptist Convention, which numbers in 
its membership one million and a quarter colored Bap- 
tists, with 8,637 ordained ministers and church prop- 
erty valued at $7,000,000, including the piety, brain, in- 
dustry and scholarship of the colored Baptists of the 
United States. 

An organization whioh has done more than any 
other to unify the denomination and give permanent 
character to all its activities, gathering historical data 
for the instruction and edification not only of unborn 
generations, but for contemporaneous organizations 
that labor for the advancement of the kingdom of 
Christ. Until his death, he was the honored presideni;. 
He was in constant demand for addresses on public 
occasions. A large volume of biographical sketches 



The Scourging of a Race, 119 

of eminent colored men, entitled ''Men of Mark," was 
prepared by him in 1887 and remains a lasting monu- 
ment to his literary ability. In July, 1887, the Ameri- 
can Baptist Home Mission Society appointed him Dis- 
trict Secretary for the Southern States — ^the first col- 
ored man appointed to such a position by any Baptist 
orga'nization. He traveled extensively, wrought eflfec- 
tively and exerted powerful and widespread influence 
in favor of the society and its work. 

For a year or more before his death, he had become 
conispicuously interested in the establishment of a 
la/rge industrial and manual labor school, known as 
Eckstein Norton University and before it realized his 
most sanguine hopes, he went from labor to reward. 
During the year he received from Selma University, 
Selma., Ala., the degree of LL. D. 

His activities were prominently identified with the 
most important affairs of the race. For several years 
he was chairman of the Executive Committee of the 
State Convention of Colored Men of Kentucky. He 
was chairman of the Committee appointed to lay be- 
fore the Legislature of Kentucky the grievances of 
271,481 colored citizens. His speech on this occasion 
was a masterpiece. Said he, ''Only the history of the 
two races in our beautiful country could give birth to 
such a scene as this. That we, born Americans, find- 
ing distinctions in law should be driven to appeal to a 
portion oi the same body politic for rights and equali- 
ties, and though sovereigns ourselves, because too 
weak, bend the suppliant knee, craving that we might 
be given that w'hich appears rightly ours without con- 
test. We feel some pride and are consequently jeal- 
ous of the good name of the State and the United 
States. We also feel humiliated that a foreigner, who 
has never felled a tree, built a cabin or laid a line of 
railway, seems more welcome to this shore, and is 
accorded every facility for himself and children to 



I20 The Scourging of a Race. 

make the most of themselves, even before naturaliza- 
tion; w^hile we, seeing them happy in a new found 
asylum and knowing you from our youth up, are com- 
pelled to beg, in the zenith hour of '86, your favors. 
Two generations are before you. The one born in the 
cradle of slavery, the other mingled their infant voice 
with the retreating sound of the cannon/' 

At the meeting of the Colored Press Convention 
in St. Louis, Mo., July 13, 1883, he was nominated for 
its presidency and was defeated by one vote by Hon. 
W. A. Pledger, of Georgia. In 1885, he was made 
chairman of ithe executive committee at Richmond, 
Va., and the next year was elected president over 
Hon. T. T. Fortune, editor of the New York Freeman, 
a position which he held until his death. 

Dr. Simmons was greatly interested in the education 
of the hand. In his pamphlet on ''Industrial Educa- 
tion," he says, ''If the industrial craze be not watched, 
our literary institutions will be turned into workshops 
and our scholars into servants and journeymen. Keep 
the literary and industrial apart. Let the former be 
stamped deeply so it will not be mistaken. We need 
soholars. Attempt not the task of grinding scholars 
out of industrial; nor finished workmen from literary 
schools. Industrial work as a sentiment must be crys- 
talized into a profitable reality." 

In 1883, he organized the Baptist women of Ken- 
tucky into the Woman's Baptist Educational Conven- 
tion, an organization which was more largely instru- 
mental, then any other force, in paying the debt of 
the State University. This convention with that of the 
National Baptist Convention remains a monument to 
his ability as an organizer. 

As an orator, Dr. Simmons was eloquent, a quick 
thinker, possessing great fluency of language. As a 
debater, his logic was irresistible; at time the whole 
grandeur of his soul, sat enthroned upon his counten- 



The Scourging of a. Race. 121 

ance and his hearers were entranced at his matchless 
eloquence. 

He was invited to deliver the addresses before three 
different colleges in one year, so largely was his ora- 
torical ability recognized. 

His intellect, naturaly acute, was expanded by cul- 
ture and disciplined by study both in Northern and 
Southern schools, until it attained a breadth and com- 
prehensive scope which was fatal alike to the narrow 
dogmatism of the sectionalist and the destructive 
frenzy of the fanatic. He was no one ideal man. In 
politics he knew no higher law than the constitution 
of his country. He was ambitious of no distinction 
except that incident to a faithful discharge of his 
trust. His devotion to duty was so absolute and un- 
questioning; his abnegation of self so utter and com- 
plete, that they overshadowed that prudence which 
prompts men, ordinarily, to lay up a few earthly 
treasures for the proverbial ''rainy day." 

All his money was spent in the interest of the race 
and Baptist denomination. Bishop Turner says on this 
point, ''Dr. Simmons regards money as a trust from 
God, to be invested in every good cause relative to 
bettering the condition of his fellowmen and advanc- 
ing the cause of Christ. His hand is shut when those 
who do not want, come to him; but when the really 
needy and friendless come to him, it is like a strainer 
full of holes letting all he possesses pass through, To 
friends he is faithful; to enemies he shows a steady 
resistance, but no aggressiveness.'' 

But it was in the domestic circle, amid the sweet 
endearments of home, that the most lovable and lovely 
traits of his character found the fullest development. 
His appreciation of home joys and domestic pleasures 
were unusually acute, and however appreciated and 
honored might be his public service, he ever turned 
with unfailing zest and keen enjoyment to the de- 



122 The Scourging of a Race, 

lights of that home whose elegant hospitalities he so 
much delighted to dispense and to that family in whose 
affectionate ministrations he found his highest hap- 
piness. In the sacred penetralia of that home, there 
is ''an aching void the world can never fill." To ''time, 
the comforter," and to "Him who doeth all things 
well," they can look alone for the healing of their 
yet green wounds, assured that when that time shall 
come, they will feel a just appreciation of his reputa- 
tion as a public servant and will forever cherish as 
their dearest heritage the memory of his sweet domes- 
tic virtues. His work is finished. He has no part or 
lot in all that is done beneath the sun. No more for 
him the voice of love, the song of gladness, the load 
of care, the cup of sorrow. Not for him the beauty 
of spring, the splendor of summer, the glory of 
autumn, the uncrowned majesty of winter. Flowers 
will spring up upon his grave; storms will spend 
their fury upon it; morning will greet it with her 
earliest light, night crown it with her stars, and the 
earth, rolling in her great orb in infinite space, will 
bear his dust with hers, till the mighty archangel 
of the skies shall blast the last expiring breath of time 
and the infant cry of eternity. 

The immortal Garfield once said : "A noble life, 
crowned with iheroic death, rises above and outlives 
the pride and pomp and glory of the mightiest empires 
of the earth." Such a life was that of William J. 
Simmons, for w^hen the history of the world's greatest 
benefactors shall have been written, the volume will 
be incomplete, without the name of this honored ser- 
vant of God, whose whole life was one of sacrifice 
and service for God and his fellowman. He has raised 
a monument more lasting than brazen statues, more 
enduring than marble shafts, and higher than the royal 
pyramids, which can not be destroyed by wasting rains, 
or sweeping hurricanes, the series of the countless ages, 
or the flight of the eternal years. 



The Scourging of a Race. 123 

A servant of the living God is dead, 

His errand hath been well and early done, 

And early hath he gone io 'his reward. 

He shall come no more forth, but to his sleep 

Ha*th silently lain down, and so shall rest. 

Would ye bewail our brother? He hath gone 

To Abraham's bosom. He s/hall no more thirst 

Nor hunger, but forever in the eye, 

Holy and meek, of Jesus, he may look, 

Unchided and untempted and unstained. 

Would ye bewail our brother? He hath gone 

To sit down with the prophets by the clear 

And crystal waters, he hath gone to list 

Isaiah's halp and David's, and to walk 

With Enoch, and Elijah, and the host 

Of the just men made perfect. 

He shall bow at Gabriel's hallelujah and unfold 

The scroll of the Apocalypse with John 

And talk of Christ, with Mary, and go back 

To the last supper, and the Garden prayer 

With the beloved disciple. He shall hear 

The story of the incarnation told 

By Simeon, and the Triune mystery. 

Burning upon the fervent lips of Paul. 

He sihall have wings of glory and shall soar 

To the remoter firmaments, and read 

The order and harmony of the stars ; 

And, in the might of knowledge, he shall bow 

In the deep pauses of archangel harps. 

And, humble as the seraphim, sihall cry. 

Who, by this searching, finds thee out oh, God ! 



124 The Scourging of a Race. 

The Religious Status of tlie 
Negro. 



Read before the Virginia l^aptist State Convention, at 
Lvnchburg, Va., Hav 1 1, 1555. 



The Negro stands to-day upon an eminence that 
overlooks more than two decades, spent in efforts to 
ameliorate the condition of seven million immortal 
souls ; by opening before their hitherto dark and cheer- 
less lives, possibilities of development into a perfect 
and symmetrical manhood and womanhood. 

The retrospect presents to us a picture of moral 
degradation — ^a logical sequence of slavery; mental 
^loom, unpenetrated by the faintest ray of intellectual 
light ; souls, [out of which should flow the holiest and 
best forces of life] belittled in capacity; warped in 
sentiment land lowered in instinct, until the distinc- 
tion between moral right and wrong had nearly be- 
come extinct. Absolutely sunk in the lowest depths 
of a poverty which reduced them to objects of charity 
and stood, as an impregnable barrier, in their way to 
speedy advancement, in all those qualities that make 
the useful citizen, with every influence of the church, 
state and social life, opposed to their progress in and 
enjoyment of the blessings of liberty, and like some 
evil genius, forever haunting them with the idea, that 
their future must be one of subserviency to the "su- 
perior race." 

Hated and oppressed by the combined wisdom, 
wealth and statesmanship of a mighty confederacy; 



The Scourging of a Race. 125 

watched and criticised — ^their mistakes strongly mag- 
nified by those who fain would write destruction upon 
the emancipation, they were expected to rise from 
this condition. 

The idea of giving to the newly enfranchised a 
sound, practical education was considered at the dawn 
of freedom, an easy solution of what, as an unsolved 
problem, threatened the perpetuity of republican in- 
stitutions. 

Within a year from the firing on Sumpter, benevo- 
lent and farsighted northern friends had established 
schools, from Washington to the Gulf of Mexico, 
which became centres of light, penetrating the dark- 
ness and scattering the blessings of an enlightened 
manhood far and wide. 

Tihe history of the world cannot produce a more 
affecting spectacle than the growth of this mighty 
Christian philanthropy which beginning amid the 
din of battle, has steadily marched on through every 
opposing influence, and lifted a race from weakness 
to strength, from poverty to wealth, from moral and 
intellectual nonentity to place and power among the 
nations of the earth. 

Dr. Haygood in ''Our Brother in Black'' says — "I 
have seen the Negroes in their religious moods, in 
their most deathlike trances and in their wildest out- 
breaks of excitement. In the reality of religion among 
them I have the most entire confidence, nor can I ever 
doubt it while religion is a reality to me. 

Their notions may be in some things crude, their 
conceptions of truth realistic, sometimes to a painful, 
sometimes to a grotesqque degree. They may be more 
emotional than ethical. They may show many im- 
perfections in their religious development; neverthe- 
less their religion is their most striking and important, 
their strongest and most formative, characteristic. 

They are more remarkable here than anywhere else ] 
their religion has had more to do in shaping their 



126 The Scourging of a Race. 

better obaracter in this country than -any other influ- 
ence; it will most determine what they are to become 
in their future development. 

No man, whatever his personal relations to the sub- 
ject, who seeks to understand these people, can afford 
to overlook or undervalue their religious history and 
character. Whatever the student of their history may 
believe on the subject of religion in general, and of 
their religion in particular, this is certain — it i§ most 
real to them. To them God is a reality. So is heaven, 
hell and the judgment day. 

Their churches are the centres of their social and 
religious life. 

The hope of the African race in this country is 
largely in its pulpit. The school house and the news- 
paper ihave not substituted the pulpit, as a throne of 
spiritual power, in any Christian nation. 

In studying the religious characteristics of the Ne- 
groes one who is informed and is only concerned about 
facts — leaving his theories and pet plans of church 
work to take care of themselves — will be impressed 
with the power of their ecclesiastical organizations. 

Whether the Negro church leaders have an instinct 
for government I know not, but this I know, they 
hold together well. They are devoted to their churches. 
There is not simply individual enthusiasm but a cer- 
tain esprit in the congregations that might well be 
the envy and despair of many a white pastor. They 
go their length for their churches. 

But the prospect shows improvement religiously. 
The emotional as opposed to the rational element in 
the Negro's religion is fast becoming a thing of the 
past. The pew is loud, continuous and universal in 
its demand for an educated pulpit — one that unites 
to deep piety a mind well trained ; that makes Christ 
the centre of all its preaching; that aims to awaken 
in the people, holy aspirations and untiring zeal, to 



The Scourging of a Race, 127 

the end, that the kingdoms of this world may become 
the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. 

Morally, we are improving. This element of pro- 
gress is necessarily slow ; its opposition is mig'hty and 
deep-rooted ; it must eliminate the evil habits of gen- 
erations. 

No one who knows the Southern Negro and com- 
pares the low moral status in which freedom found 
him, with his present morality, can deny that his pro- 
gress has been stupendous. 

Go to his home and there you will find a pure moral 
atmosphere, supplemented by ithat taste and refine- 
ment which is an outgrowth of right living. 

Go to the schools, look into the bright, intelligent 
faces of the pupils and see the marks of refinement, 
in dress and decorum, which are the consequences of 
proper home training. 

Mankind is imitative, the Negro is pre-eminently 
so. Throw him in a healthy moral atmosphere and 
he will imbibe the salutary influence and reproduce it 
in his ihome. r 

Since emancipation, under the most dispiriting cir- 
cumstances he has made rapid and unparalleled im- 
provement in morals; and if this state has attained 
against countless and multi formed adversities, to what 
moral heights may he not ascend in the next twenty 
years, with the refining and elevating influence of the 
church, the home and the schools as agencies in pro- 
moting this great end ? 

The Negro is pre-eminently benevolent. He eon- 
tributes to missions, education and every phase of 
Christian work. 

He gives for the endowment of educational institu- 
tions ; for the erection of public buildings ; for the es- 
tablishment of schools of art and science; for the 
creation of funds, intended to be used in perpetuating 
the memory of statesmen and philanthropists ; and for 



128 The Scourging of a Race. 

the construction of costly and magnificent temples in 
which to worship God. 

His benevolence is one of the most positive qualities 
in his religion. His profession and practice may be 
as far apart as the polar regions, but when it comes 
to pure, simple benevolence he is an example worthy 
the emulation of all men. 

The Negro is a church builder; out of his meagre 
capital he builds churches which in architectural beauty 
and costliness of material will vie with any of the 
superior irace. 

Millions of dollars have been expended in the last 
two decades among all denominations of color, for the 
erection of church edifices. Is this not an evidence 
of his religious zeal and benevolence ? 

The rapidity with which he secures funds for the 
building of churches is astonishing. 

No. system of taxation, as a means of securing his 
contributions or developing his benevolence, is neces- 
sary. 

The fountain of his benevolence is ever full; its 
streams flow spontaneously. He has a sympathetic 
nature and loves to contribute towards the ameliora- 
tion of his fellow-man's condition. 

In view of these facts we are safe in saying his re- 
ligious status is exceedingly encouraging. 

There are those who come among us, blinded with 
prejudice and watchful for his vices rather than his 
virtues; who will not see any good thing that he has 
accomplished; who select the worst types of immoral- 
ity; isearch for the most hardened criminals; secure 
the most consummate hypocrites, and hold these up 
as representatives of the Negro's progress in morals 
and religion. 

But the voice of these self -constituted philanthropists 
betrays them ; their hand is not the hand of a friend, 
but that of the most inveterate enemy that ever shed a 
victim's blood. 



The Scourging of a Race, 129 

But above all these circumstances the Negro rises, 
gradually eliminating from his religion every element 
antagonistic to the teachings of the Bible and includ- 
ing those principles and practices which mark him 
as advancing in religion as well as in morals and in- 
telligence. 

While his case is so ihopeful, there is need of his 
being further instructed in -the principle of a just 
morality and all the elements that give strength and 
beauty to character. 

He needs to be shown the beautiful and inseparable 
connection between religion as a profession and re- 
ligion as a practice; to know that allegiance to the 
kingdom of Christ means weighty responsibilities and 
unswerving devotion to duty. 

With the public schools pouring into his daily life 
their healthful influence, the Sabbath schools moulding 
his children for the service of the master and the 
church as a field for his best labor of heart and head, 
his religion should be purified and the holiness and 
character of his life permanently established. En- 
couraged with the progress of the future, let us con- 
centrate our efforts, calling on every principle of man- 
hood within us, until the Negro shall stand in all the 
fullness of developed Christian character, the acknowl- 
edged peer of any man. ^ 

George William Cable, in his excellent article on the 
Silent South, thus eloquently describes the statue o£ 
Lee: "In Tivoli Circle, New Orleans, from the cen- 
ter and apex of its green flowery mound, an immense 
column of pure white marble rises in the fair unfrown- 
ing majesty of Grecian proportions higJi up above the 
city's house-tops into the dazzling sunshine and frag- 
rant gales of the Delta. On its dizzy top stands the 
bronze figure of one of the world's greatest captains. 
He is alone. Not one of his mighty lieutenants stand 
behind, beside or below him. His arms are folded on 
that breast that never knew fear, and his calm, daunt- 
8 



130 The Scourging of a Race, 

less gaze meets the morning sun as it rises, like the 
new prosperity of the land ihe loved so masterly, above 
the far distant battlefielids where so many thousands of 
his gray veterans lie in the sleep of fallen heroes." 

'So the Afro-American stands to-day with no back- 
ing, no well defined social affinity ; a relic of the past, 
a past, too, crowded with unpleasant memories; pro- 
scribed, maligned and hated, barred out from enter- 
ing into the sanctum sanctorum of the literary and in- 
dustrial temple, assured of free access to no throne, 
save that whose king is Jehovah and whose sceptre is 
righteousness. 

Twenty years and more have come and gone, he has 
seen the friends of human liberty gathered one by one 
to their fathers ; he has heard their voices die and won- 
dered who should fill their places, if they can be filled. 

And now he faces the untrodden paths of the future, 
full of hope arid reliance upon his inherent qualities of 
manhood, ready to grapple with the stern duties that 
come to enlightened manhood, confronted with prob- 
lems which tax the mental acumen of the prO)foundest 
philosophers, but with Spartan courage the Negro 
stands ready to die on his 'shield. 

To-day he realizes his position better than ever be- 
fore, to-day he has a clearer and more satisfying con- 
ception of the nature of true reHgion than ever before. 

Less than a century ago it would have been a grand 
scene to have stood on the Alps and beheld the great 
French commander. Napoleon, at the head of 200,000 
well disciplined troops, inarch with steady step and 
determined look, bent on the subjugation of Prussia, 
but its purposes were wrong and defeat was sure. 

If we stand upon the highest peak in the dome of 
this great republic we will behold an army larger in 
number, and more exalted in purpose, marching to 
certain victory, with a loftiness of purpose that chal- 
lenges defeat and a determination of spirit that laug'hs 
at every difficulty. 



The Scourging of a Race. 131 

It is an army of nearly seven million black men, led 
by Him whose leadership means success, and who ihas 
written in characters oi fire the unchanging watch- 
word, ''Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands to God/' 

Righteousness exalts a nation, therefore let us 'see 
that the Negro's righteousness is of that type which 
will raise him from his present position to the sublime 
heights of Christianity. Let him adopt the language 
of the immortal Bryant : 

"So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan which moves 
To that mysterious realm, w^here each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust approach thy grave 
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

The general improvement of the Negro in financial, 
intellectual, and social life, in his regard for the sanc- 
tity of marriage, in his high estimate of virtue, in in- 
telligent worship and increased interest in the advance- 
ment of the Redeemer's kingdom, are the strongest evi- 
dences of his progress. 

Before him there is a glorious future. The time is 
fast approaching when our brother in black shall stand 
side by -side with his brother in white ; side by side in 
financial strength, intellectual development, and moral 
purity. 

The black arm shall handle the plo.w, the hammer, 
and the plane, with a skill and strength equal to the 
white. The brains under curly locks will be equally 
as productive as those under the straighter ones. The 
tongue, hidden behind thicker walls, will be as eloquent 
as those behind thinner ones. 

In the school room, in the halls of legislation, on the 
rostrum, at the bar, by the bedside of the sick, in the 
pulpit, Ham and Japheth shall stand side by side, and 



132 The Scourging of a Race. 

not only Africa, but millions of the other races of our 
civilized and semi-civilized lands shall hear the gospel 
from the sable sons of thunder. 

When this grand consummation ,shall be readhed, 
songs of jubilee shall be heard from every mountain 
and plain, by every nation and tongue. It shall be said : 

"Tihe sable face is beaiming 

With joy's supreme control, 
As wisdom's light is streaming 

With rapture through his soul, 
Oh, what a wondrous story 

Made soul and body free. 
Now hear him shouting glory 

The year of Jubilee." 



The Scourging of a Race, 133 



National Perils. 



Delivered at Second Baptist Church, Washington, D. C, on 

the Third Sundav in October, 1559, the DavSet Apart 

bv the /American Baptist National Convention for 

Praver that Southern Outrages night Cease. 



"Righteousness exaketh a nation, but sin is a reproach to 
any people." — Proverbs xiv, 34. 

Human life is full of perils. No matter from what 
standpoint it is viewed, it is perilous. We are launched 
upon the great ocean of time, ignorant of what the 
future has in store for us. In vain we try to divine 
what the developments of to-morrow may be, and 
are confronted in each step of our history with a dem- 
onstration of the truth. ''What a day may bring 
forth is uncertain." Four things are inseparably con- 
nected — time and eternity, life and death. An army 
more numerous than that of Goths or Vandals invades 
this globe. Fourteen hundred millions of human 
beings tread our earth. Each fearfully and wonder- 
fully made; each making for himself a history which 
must give permianence to his future state, when 
time shall cease its revolutions; each touching the 
other with his influence, either for good or evil ; each 
struggling for existence; now wrestling with adver- 
sity ; now with prosperity ; now under the cloud ; now 
basking in the sunshine ; and whether awake or asleep, 
whether active or inactive, all on a ceaseless march to 
the city of the mute-tongued dead. 

Now, what is true of individuals is no less true in 



134 ^^^^ Scourging of a Race. 

national life. Nations make records, exert influence, 
enjoy prosperity, suffer adversity, contend in the 
school of human experience for an existence, live and 
die, the same as individuals. The same law which 
governs the individual regulates the actions of nations, 
so that all are bound with the common bonds of 
brotherhood, and none can say to his brother, ''I have 
no need of thee.'' 

In the march of progress, it is well to stop and see 
what obstacles have been overcome; for there can be 
no progress without obstacles ; they are the measuring 
rods by which the individual sees how far he has come, 
and gets in position to grasp the great problems the 
future shall present. There is no life without shadows 
and clouds ; no day without the might, even though the 
night be Egyptian darkness, for He who holdeth the 
waters in the hollow of His hand and maketh the 
winds. His chariot marks out the course of the king 
of day, saying 

"Roll on, thou imperial majesty of the day ! 

Step forth and guild the sky and earth. 

And let no ruthless hand of time, no age, with its disease and 

death. 
Attempt to ithwart the will of Him who called thee into birth." 

So we call you to-day to consider briefly some na- 
tional perils, and see the relation the Negro sustains 
to them. 

The greatest nation on earth is America; great in 
its w^ide and varied natural resources; its sweeping 
rivers creeping majestically and silently to their outlet; 
in its broad lakes, bearing upon their restless bosoms the 
wihite-winged messengers of commerce; in its tower- 
ing mountains, whose rugged peaks bathe their hoary 
heads in the clouds ; its fertile valleys, in whose pro- 
ductive soil wave the golden wheat, the white-capped 
cotton, or the nutritious rice ; great in its extensive 
plains, inviting the pasture of rich-blooded stock and 



The Scourging of a Race. 135 

extending its freedom to the prancing and fiery steed ; 
in its multitudinous grades of mineral, whose veins 
traverse circuitous routes in subterranean chambers. 
Great in intellectual giants; producing scholars, scien- 
tists, artists, philosophers — 'wiho in their ramblings 
have discovered the secrets of the most distant stars, 
vanquished time and space, taught the vapors to toil, 
the liightning to speak, and the wind to worship ; stolen 
the witchery of earth and sky, and gathered them into 
her enchanted chambers, and by books have echoed 
the crash of revolutions and the silent thunders of 
thought. But with all her greatness she must pause, 
and from the mountain top of opportunity note the 
perils that surround her and threaten to forever bedim 
her glory and relegate her to the shades of oblivion. 

Several forces are working silently to undermine 
our prosperity. There stands the red-handed and 
heartless sociahst — with lighted torch and dynamite 
bomb, ready to apply it to church and school, to state 
house and private dwelling. He is thirsty for blood ; 
he is an enemy to those rights which give the privi- 
lege of private property; he hisses at and insults the 
American fl-ag; he makes incendiary speeches, inflam- 
ing the passions of his fellows, and seeks with sleep- 
less vigilance to destroy the order of good government. 
He cries, ''Away with the state, away with all author- 
ity, away with the family, away with religion.'' 

The socialist is indeed the product of ignorance, for 
as men are enlightened, they see at once the divine 
mission and arrangement of the church, the home, 
and the state. ''Order is heaven's first law," for where 
confusion reigns there is sin and every evil work. 

The socialist, the anarchist, the nihilist, are all chil- 
dren of the same parent — the devil. The}^ are the fac- 
tors in our national system that are a standing menace 
to the nation's future prosperity. A great deal is said 
of the Negro as a citizen and a part of our social sys- 
tem, but the Negro never has nor can be so antagon- 



136 The Scourging of a Race, 

istic to the well being of the American people as this 
foreign element that sweeps in on us like a modern 
Pharaoh's plague, and threatens to tear down all the 
civilization that our fathers have produced in the 
centuries of our existence. 

Another evil is the illiteracy of the masses. With 
all the increasing labors of our public school system 
in the various states, our colleges and universities, our 
seminaries and private schools; with the expenditure 
annually of public moneys for the education of the 
people, yet the greater portion of the population grows 
up in ignorance. Much is said of Negro illiteracy, 
but the colored people are thirsty for knowledge. They 
are a reading people; old men with gray hairs and 
large families are seeking light and knowledge until 
to-day it is a rare thing to find a colored man without 
intelligent ideas. There are some, it is true, but in 
comparison with the whites and their centuries of 
superior advantages, the colored man makes an ex- 
cellent showing. 

Ignorance obstructs virtue, imperils piety, hinders 
industry and prosperity, and destroys everything good 
it touches. Now the best policy any government can 
adopt is that which can stem the tide of ignorance and 
place in the hands of every man the torch of knowl- 
edge, so that he can better know his duty to both God 
and man. 

The great arch-fiend, the inveterate and unrelenting 
enemy of our time, is intemperance. It is the parent 
of vice and immorality, the thief of virtue and honor, 
the destroyer of intellect, the murderer of everything 
good in man, and the curse which not only afifects the 
age in which it lives, but extends its influence to future 
ages and touches with its withering, blighting finger 
generations yet unborn. Intemperance, for these rea- 
sons, is a great peril to the nation ; it increases the 
army of paupers and tramps; is a continuous draft on 
the public fund, fills the poor houses, jails, insane asy- 



The Scourging vf a Race, 137 

lums and other institutions supported by the State, 
with inmates. Reliable statistics show that over four 
billion dollars are annuajlly spent for liquor in the 
United States ; that 737,296,554 gallons of liquor were 
made last year; 150,000 human beings sent to drunk- 
ards' graves. What an army to be ushered before 
God ! How vast the evil ! Of this number, some may 
have been mighty in the councils of the church and 
state; many may have made a glorious history for 
themselves among men, but they are gone forever and 
forgotten. 

So we stand as a nation, enjoying almost unconfined 
prosperity; the wonder of the age in progress, the 
observed of observers, and yet carrying with and in 
us the very forces which will destroy us forever, un- 
less properly controlled. 

But what about the Negro ? He is not a dangerous 
element; he is industrious, good-natured, honest — for 
his honesty has been tested both as a slave and free- 
man — when he stayed at home while his master went 
forth to fight to keep him a slave, he watched with 
a sleepless eye, and protected with a strong arm his 
wife and daughters. As a freeman, he has no repre- 
sentatives in Canada, and a very few in jails and peni- 
tentiaries in comparison with others. He is grateful 
to the party that assisted in giving him freedom, and 
feels that it is his unfailing friend, and believes it best 
not to give up the old friend for the new. There are 
perils surrounding us. But does the Negro make 
them? Is he responsible for them? He is improving 
intellectually ; he has acquired over $2,000,000 in prop- 
erty; built costly and magnificent churches in every 
city of the Union; organized all kinds of secret so- 
cieties, but has never made them the means of over- 
throwing law and order; of intimidating citizens in 
the exercise of their constitutional rights ; of insulting 
the American fliag or banding the race in an agreement 
with death and covenant with hell, to murder and 



138 The Scoter ging of a Race, 

1) nch, regardless of the majesty of the law, and defy 
detection. When he organizes, it is either for moral, 
material, religious or intellectual purposes. Now, I 
am not prepared to think this will always be so. He 
is learning how organizations can be made to help in 
securing his rights. He has gotten some important 
lessons from the socialist and the Irishman ; and he 
is not a silent watcher for naught; he is taking notes, 
and what will be the result, the future alone must re- 
veal ; but the Negro of the next twenty years will be 
a different individual from the Negro of to-day. What 
we call the patient, humble Negro will have gone 
and a countless army of strong men, who know their 
rights and will contend for them, will have taken their 
place. The prejudice of ignorant southern white people 
will have weakened before the strong arm of resist- 
ance w^hich will be stretched forth every time a right 
is infringed upon; our people must, in the mean time, 
get property, buy land, own houses and lots in the 
south and west, and then prepare themselves to stay 
on that land if every inch must be converted into a 
fort with Winchester and Gatling guns to keep off 
the wildcats and crows. Israel remained in Egypt 
and mourned, and God told them to come forth, but 
they passed through many bloody struggles before 
they reached Canaan. War is. an evil, but of ''two 
evils we are to choose the lesser." All war does not 
mean bloodshed ; the Reformation under Luther was a 
bloodless battle, but it threw off the yoke of bondage. 
AM war does not mean reeking battlefields and clash- 
ing arms, but a struggle for right against wrong, and 
truth against error. Let our people in those localities 
where there is no hope of building up themselves leave 
and locate where they can get property and educate 
their children for the coming crisis, get education and 
money. Knowledge is power ; so is money. Wealth 
is the king whose scepter sways over all classes — the 
rich and poor, young and old, white and black — all. 



The Scourging of a Race, 139 

We must look out for 'ourselves ; we have been taking 
care of the white people for over 270 years ; it is now 
time for us to build for ourselves and the future. We 
are 7,000,000 strong, interwoven into the being o^f this 
republic ; we are in their blood, their homes, their 
schools, their courts; with them, waking or sleeping, 
in their downsitting and uprising; we are irrepressible 
— almost omnipresent — ^they cannot kill us out, for the 
more they hang the more numerous the army becomes. 
Extermination won't do; lynching won't do; intimida- 
tion won't do. Nothing but giving him what is justly 
his as a citizen, if he is a foreigner — ^and he is not. 
Assimilate him ; make him a part ; don't try to throw 
him off. There is no enmity istrong enough, for he 
is in the blood and bone of the nation, and if left un- 
disturbed, will do no harm; but if stirred may grasp 
the pillars, like Samson of old, of our temple's liber- 
ties and leave a shapeless mass of confusion at our 
feet. 

Righteous'nesis exalteth a nation. It is only when 
men recognize God that they rise; only when they 
walk the paths that Jehovah points out that they live 
and die in peace. It is the Gospel that saves men, 
and it is the Gospel of righteousness that brings that 
happy period when men shall learn war no more, but 
beat thdr -swords into plowshares and their spears 
into pruning hooks. 



140 The Scourging of a Race, 

The Character and WorN of 
the Apostle Paul. 



Published In "Our Vouag People," The Sundav School Per- 
iodical of the American Baptist Publication Societv, 
bv Request of the Editor, and Paid for 
at the Regular Pates. 



Ohristianity needed a man able to plant her stand- 
ard in the focal points of worldly civilization. The 
cultured West awaited its coming ; its battle fieMs were 
crowded with warriors bold and defiant, acute in in- 
tellectuality, cunning in debate, shrewd in logic and 
profound in philosophy ; they stood ceaseless watch to 
crush the first eflfoft made to establish the religion of 
Christ. It needed a lion heart and a master hand to 
guide. Providence presented the man for the hour 
in the presence of the Gentile apostle. 

Paul was born in Tarsus, a city famed for culture 
and learning, once the home of Cyrus, Alexander the 
Great, and Caesar; a city whose citizens were distin- 
guished for excellence in art and science. It gives 
the world the youthful Saul, destined to overthrow 
its false philosophy and present the most sublime sys- 
tem of true religion and morality. Although Tarsus was 
the seat of one of the greatest universities, Saul became 
a student in Jerusalem under the learned Gamaliel, 
who because of professional eminence was called "The 
iDeauty of the Law," From this master's hand he came 
forth in the vigor of early manhood a scholar and 
took first place as a leading Pharisee. All the fire of 



The Scourging of a Race, 141 

his Jurlaistic nature was aroused in the presence of 
Christianity. He exceeded all other persecutors in 
the intensity of his hatred toward the Christians. None 
wore so unreasoning- or unreasonable as he- When 
Jerusalem had been exhausted, armed with authority^ 
he sought the regions beyond. On toward the tremb- 
ling saints at Damascus, like a madman, "breathing 
out threatenings and slaughter," he journeyed; but 
developments awaited him of which he never dreamed. 
The smiter was to be smitten; the complete transfor- 
mation of a whole life was to occur. Saul, the per- 
secutor became Paul, the zealous devotee of the Christ. 

His conversion was supernatural. God used extra- 
ordinary means to secure an extraordinary man. Saul 
was no searcher after truth as were Origen, Augustine 
and Luther ; his object was to overthrow it by the de- 
struction of its advocates. What the Gospel could do 
with unlettered men had beet; clearly demonstrated. 
It was pre-eminently necessary that the world should 
know what this same gosp^4 could do with a scholar, 
a genius, a master in eloquence and argument. God 
called him in the ardor of youthful zeal, in the fierce 
and fearless energy of his lion-like nature, in the very 
act of his daring and mad rebellion. His entire life 
was revolutionized. He sought to imprison others 
and was himself imprisoned; he would bind others 
with the cords of persecution, and is himself bound; 
his sight once fascinated by earthly objects, becomes 
blinded to worldly glory, while there shines in him 
that celestial light which drives away the darkness 
of the soul and floods the whole spiritual nature with 
things invisible to mortal sight. 

There was a transition from the hatred of a new 
system of religion to an undying love for it; from a 
bitter rejection of its author^ — Jesus of Nazareth — to 
a cordial reception of him; from the narrow, bigoted 
spirit of the Pharisee to a broad, unbounded charity 
that included all men ; a change in spirit, aim, attitude. 



142 The Scourging of a Race, 

His pride humbled, his ambition turned toward nobler 
things, his whole life was now to be devoted to that 
same cause he so lately sought to destroy. The new 
religion must find its place amid the intellectuality of 
that age, and Paul was a man divinely called to make 
the reconciliation. 

Three great races influenced the world, the Jewish, 
the Grecian, and the Roman. They were its master 
spirits. No man could so effectively combine the three, 
since he was by descent a Jew, by nativity and educa- 
tion a Grecian, and by political rights a Roman citi- 
zen. There he stood, called, qualified, and endowed 
from heaven, with bright and polished sickle ready to 
thrust into the already ripened harvest field. What 
a conquest Christianity recorded in the conversion 
of Paul ! The head of the Jewish persecution once, 
now the head of Christ's ambassadors to the Gentile 
world. Hear him subsequently say, ''I am debtor 
both to the Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise 
and the imwise.'' 

Conversion does not destroy individuality. The 
mental peculiarities remain the same. There was in 
Saul, the persecutor, a stern regard for law, a most 
rigid conscientiousness, a zeal for God, an intense 
spirit of propagandism ; a courage unshrinking before 
danger, all of which are found in Paul, the apostle to 
the Gentiles, only applied to higher and nobler objects. 
Paul apprehended the gospel in its universality as the 
religion of the human race. He gave to Christianity 
its first doctrinal form and development. 

At ISO intellectual a period, it was fortunate that a 
master mind should stand as the interpreter of Chris- 
tian doctrine. Every school of philosophy had left 
its impress upon the public mind. The hierarchal 
Jewish prejudice, the intellectual Grecian pride, the 
Roman political pre-eminence, all combined to pre- 
sent insuperable obstacles to a new system of religion. 
The scattered disciples needed the very indoctrination 



The Scourging of a Race, 143 

Paul igave them. As a missionary, he has no parallel 
among his apostles or successors. Xavier, Gregory, 
Whitfield, Luther, Judson and others, have wrought 
well as missionaries of the cro»ss and great moral re- 
formers, but Paul of Tarsus towers above all in 
moral purity, depth of piety, intellectual force, and 
theological breadth. 

The eloquent French preacher, Monod, says : 'Taul 
projected his shadow over the vast extent of the Roman 
Empire,'' and the entire Christian world is influenced 
by it to-day. He is the Epistle writer of the New Tes- 
tam'ent. There is about his epistles a power of analysis, 
a wealth of illustration, an irresistibleness of argument, 
a depth of pathos, that ranks him at once as the trium- 
phant controversialist and invincible defender of 
Christianity. As we read his epistles we forget the 
aistute logician in admiration of the inspired writer 
w'ho combined and sanctified all his powers with a 
sweet love for Christ that was the passion of his soul. 
The great apostle was beheaded at Rome under Nero. 
In his death, the moral grandeur of his life shone with 
celestial glory. Cyrus, Alexander, Charlemange, Na- 
poleon, were great while living. Their greatness en'ded 
with their lives. Paul of Tarsus, unknown to the 
annals of war and carnage, outlives the empires they 
founded and the victories they achieved. His life, 
like some mighty river, flowed silently and majestic- 
ally into the ocean of eternity — an eternity crowded 
with the spirits of the just and crowned with the in- 
efifable splendors of the New Jerusalem. 



144 The Scourging of a Race, 

Robert G. Shaw. 



Arv Address Delivered at Boston, Mass., Septernber, 1697,. 

Before the CitlzeiAS and National Baptist Convention, 

on Boston Commons, Before the 

Shaw Monument. 



We stand to-day, in the presence of one of the 
grandest characters that figured in all the thrilling 
history of the civil war. A man of noble birth and 
princely spirit, vv^hose devotion to the principles of 
liberty was so steadfast that it saw in the ebonied sons 
of Ham, a man and brother; a man whose loyalty to- 
his country's welfare forced him to lay his best ener- 
gies upon the altar of sacrifice and service and give 
his life as the gallant commander of a hated and des- 
pised Negro regiment. 

Since the formation of our government, Massa- 
chusetts has contributed much toward all that has 
made the American people a great nation. Her high 
type of statesmanship, the profundity of her scholar- 
ship and the advanced position she has taken upon 
all questions of civil and political liberty have en- 
deared her to the heart of a liberty-loving people and 
given her an undying record in the history of modern 
civilization, but when she gave to the Negro soldier, 
lately shackled by human bondage, the intrepid soldier 
and patriot, Robert G. Shaw, she reached the climax 
of her glory and erected an imperishable monument 
in the heart of every Negro — 

"From Maine's tall ipines and crags of snow, 
To where magnolia's blossoms blow," 

and from the turbulent Atlantic to the peaceful Pacific. 



The Scourging of a Race, 145 

Thirty-four years ago, it cost a man everything on 
earth which he held dear to ally himself with the 
Negro. The black man had never had an ample op- 
portunity to display his qualities as a soldier ; a sense- 
less proscription had condemned him before his case 
could have a hearing; a diabolical prejudice had never 
considered him in possession of that high type of pa- 
triotism that would bare its bosom to the leaden bullet 
or plunge into the smoke and carnage of war. He 
had no record as a man. The world only knew him 
as a cringing slave, a civil, political and social non- 
entity. 

It required sterling manhood to stand in his de- 
fense. To the soldier who had accepted a commission 
as his military leader, there was only ostracism by his 
fellow comrades, with not much hope for promotion 
in the army and a place in the history of the country 
as the friend of the hated Negro. 

Robert G. Shaw knew this, and inspired of God, 
he forsook all the seductive charms of ambition, all 
that fame offered upon its altar, all that a young man, 
beautiful and full of promise would ordinarily hold 
dear, to lead the Negro soldier against the enemy of 
his country. 

God always has a man as the representative of a new 
era and the harbinger of some great truth. It was 
so among the ancient patriarchs and prophets, the 
apostles and martyrs, the reformers and great re- 
ligious leaders of early times ; in religion and politics, 
this is true. The history of this country teems with 
evidence sustaining this point. The establishment of 
great principles which forever link the names of the 
immortal Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, 
Webster, Clay, Lincoln, Sumner, Phillips, Garrison, 
John Brown, Frederick Douglass and a mighty host 
of others, stands as a living witness to the fact that 
when the God of battles would teach the world a les- 
son, he always has his man in readiness. 
9 



146 The Scourging of a Race, 

It was not only the fires of patriotism that .burned 
in young Shaw's breast that made him willing to suflfer 
the ostracism of his fellows, in the leaders'hip of Negro 
soldiers — it was the inspiration of God that toudhed 
his heart and life; that .seized upon him and forced 
him in the place where God and nature had conspired 
to make him so eminently and signally useful. 

Tiurn your faces from this shaft of marble back to 
the 1 8th day of July, 1863. The last rays of the set- 
ting sun illumined the grim walls and shattered 
mounds of Fort Wagner with a flood of crimson light. 
There stood, side by side, the hunter of the far West, 
the farmer of the North, the stout lumberman from 
the forests of Maine and the black phalanx that Mass- 
achusetts had armed and sent to the field, commanded 
by the gallant Col. Robert G. Shaw. Onward swept 
the immense mass of humanity, swiftly, but silently 
in the dark shadows of night. Not a flash of light 
was seen in the distance. No sentinel hoarsely chal- 
lenged the approaching foe. All was still save the 
footsteps of the isoldiers which sounded like the roar 
of the distant surf as it beats upon a rock-bound coast. 

Suddenly, there burst forth a vivid sheet of blinding 
•light. Down came the whirlwind of destruction along 
the beach, with lightning swiftness. Fearfully, the 
hissing shot, the shrieking bombs, the whispering bul- 
lets, struck and crushed through the mass of brave 
men. One thousand fall, but they take the fort, only 
to be driven back by a volley that cut down the black 
phalanx like the ripened wheat before the mighty 
sweep of a sharpened sickle. 

Here IJhe brave Shaw fell, fighting desperately. 
The next morning, when a request was made for his 
body, a Confederate major isaid, "We buried him with 
his niggers." 

This was a high compliment, a noble tribute to the 
memory of a great man. If the race in this country 
does not revere his memory, they are less than men. 



The Scourging of a Race. 147 

A poet has immortalized his name and set the oc- 
currence to verse. 

''They buried him with his niggers, 

Together they fought and died ; 
There was room for them all where they laid him, 

(The grave was deep and wide) 
For his ibeauty and youth and valor, 

Their patience and love tand pain, , 

And at the last, together, 

They shall all be found again. 

"They buried 'him with his niggers ; 

(Earth holds no prouder grave. 
There is not a mausoleum 

In the world heyond the grave 
That a nobler tale has hallowed 

Or a purer glory crowned 
Than the nameless trench where they buried 

The brave so faithful found. 

''They buried him with his niggers, 

A wide grave should it be ; 
They buried him in that hollow trench. 

That ihuman eye could see. 
Aye, all the shames and sorrows 

Of more than a hundred years 
Lie under the weight of that Southern soil, 

Despite those cruel sneers. 

*'They buried him with his niggers, 

But the glorious souls set free 
Are leading the van of the army 

That fights for liberty. 
Brothers in death, in glory. 

The same palm branches bear. 
And the crown is as bright o'er the sable brows 

As over the golden hair." 



148 The Scourging of a Race. 



The Religious and Secular 
Press Compared. 



Read at the National Press ConveiAtiorv, Baltimore, Md., 
Julv 10, 1595. 



The Press is a general term, including all literature. 
It is the art from which much of the history and 
thougfht of the world has been transmitted from gen- 
eration to generation. As we stand in the great libra- 
ries of the world, all history passes before us in magni- 
ficent panorama. We are confronted by all the cen- 
turies. We commune with the wise and good of 
every period, school and country. They are the thea- 
tres; the stage is time; and the play, the drama of 
the world. 

In the modern history of Christendom, nothing is 
more remarkable than the growth of the Press. Cow- 
per was right when he said, 

"How shall I speak thee or thy powers address, 
Thou god of our idolatry, the press? 
By thee religion, liberty, and laws 
Exert their influence and advance their cause ; 
By thee worse plagues than Pharoahs' land befell 
Diffused, make earth the vestibule of hell; 
Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wise 
Thou ever bubbling spring of endless lies; 
Like Eden's dread probationary tree. 
Knowledge of good and evil is from thee." 



The Scourging of a Race. 149 

It is a fixed institution and like all of its kind, lias 
its own world, its own traditions, its standard of opin- 
ions, its prejudices, its limitations — all the idols of the 
cave where it dwells and toils. We boast of the free- 
dom of ithe Press, but our forefathers had no dream 
that it would be carried to such an alarming extent, 
filling the markets of our cities and villages with pol- 
luting and crime-breeding productions. The greater 
part of our current literature is shockingly impure. 
Its mischief-breeding suggestions are invested with a 
rhetorical drapery that is fascinating and bewitching. 
It is just as degrading and disgraceful to commune 
with books of such a character as it is to keep com- 
pany with the most unclean and disreputable person 
in the community. The man who walks the streets 
with a plumed and painted harlot is not more impure 
than he who is accustomed to bend over the pages of 
an unclean book. They stand upon the same moral 
level and one is just as decent and respectable as the 
other. Thousands of young men and hundreds even 
of maturer years, hang around our news-stands and 
book-stores in search of moral filth. They are moral 
vultures that scent vileness and rottenness and look 
for it till they find it. Their minds are poisoned 
through and through with the venom of bad. books. 
In determining what standing in society a man de- 
serves, we should not only consider the company he 
keeps but the character of the books he reads; if he 
is unclean in his reading, he is unclean everywhere. 

The power of journalism is immense and almost 
irresistible. Upon this subject, James Russell Lowell 
wrote the following: ^'I know of no position so re- 
sponsible as th^t of the public journalist. The editor 
of our day bears 'the same relation to his time that the 
clerk bore to the age before the invention of printing. 
The position which he holds is that which the clergy- 
man should hold even now. Meanwhile, what a pulpit 
the editor mounts daily ! Sometimes with a congrega- 
tion of fifty thousand within reach of his voice and 



150 The Scourging of a Race, 

never so much as a nodder amomg them. And from 
w'hat a Bi'ble can he choose his text! A Bible which 
needs no translation, and which no priestcraft can 
shuit and clasp from the laity — the open volume of 
the world upon which, with a pen of sunshine or de- 
stroying fire, expiring Present is even now writing 
the annals of God. Methinks the editor who should 
understand his calling and be equal thereto would 
truly deserve the title which Homer bestows upon 
princes. He would be the Moses of our nineteenth 
century, and whereas the old Sinai, silent now, is but 
a common mountain, stared at by the geologists, he 
must find his tables of new law here, among factories 
and cities in this wiilderness of sin called progress of 
civilization, and be the captain of our exodus into the 
Canaan of a truer social order.'' 

Magnificent is the power of the newspaper press. 
It is a theme worthy of the orator and poet and can- 
not fail to inspire them to lofty flight. But no man 
can be loyal to trutlh and deny that its abuse is rapidly 
poisoning the very fountains of society, and if not 
counteracted, will produce the most corrupt and God- 
less civilization the world has ever known. I have no 
disposition to depreciate the secular newspaper. It is 
a factor in our civilization that could not be eliminated 
without inflicting irreparable injury upon the com- 
munity. But while this is true, it will not be denied 
that many of the evils traceable to the bad features 
of modern journalism more than counterbalance the 
good with which it is to be credited. 

What is an honest newspaper? It is not one that 
invades the sanctity of the home for the gratification 
of the scandal-monger or the satisfaction of petty 
spite. It is not willing to sell its powerful columns 
to trusts and corporations, or men who defy the law, 
oppress the people, corrupt legislatures and build grea)t 
fortunes on the fallen rights of citizens. It is one that 
within its proper sphere as a public instrument, tells 



The Scourging of a Race, 151 

the truith without fear or favor. It has as its guide 
the best and truest interests of the community. It is 
faithful to its constituents and uses every legitimate 
means to guard and foster the welfare of the people; 
aiding in their social and political elevation and up- 
holding the just law of the land. 

But what shall we say of the religious press? It 
should be liberal in spirit, but loyal to Christian truth, 
having some clear message to deliver, some definite 
views on all the great burning questions of the day. 
No hazy sentimentalism or vague declamation or glit- 
tering generalities or cunning subterfuge can satisfy 
the souls that have been drifted about by the winds 
and waves of doubt and distrust. They want some 
solid foundation on which their faith and hope may 
rest. In times of moral degeneracy, when the public 
conscience is paralyzed by low, selfish views of duty, 
the religious press should fearlessly rebuke prevailing 
sins, whether It brings popularity or unpopularity. In 
times of lukewarmness and worldHness, when the fires 
of Christian zeal are dying out, the Christian press, 
like the old Hebrew prophet, should call back the 
recreant church to the old paths and fan the smolder- 
ing embers of religious life into a living flame. It 
must more earnestly defend the sanctity of domestic 
life. We have all seen the fruits of a vile philosophy; 
heard the portentous mutterings of marriage as a fail- 
ure and the increase of population ; discovered the per- 
nicious influences of the secret literature that poisons 
our young Hfe ; and the impure novelettes which, like 
demons, poison and corrupt thousands. We must ex- 
pose these would be friends of the people, who license 
liberty, unrein passions and rupture the most delight- 
ful relationships of life. These are the enemies of 
God and man and no soft words should greet their 
ears, but sentences whose lightning and thunder are 
made by the intense hatred of evil and the passionate 
love for the people for whom Christ died. 



152 The Scourging of a Race. 

It should be in sympaithy with the struggHng poor, 
should set forth the moral relationship between capi- 
tal and labor, advocate temperance and a sound mo- 
rality. Should rise above mere denominational doc- 
trines and aim to teach and mold religious sentiment 
in all the people, for it is a leader of the Lord's hosts 
and must earnestly be found about the King's business. 

"The religious newspaper, in brief, must be devout, 
but not sanctimonious; courageous but not pugna- 
cious; enterprising but not sensational; alert but not 
pert; literary but not pedantic — ^so bright and sweet, 
brave, strong and pure, that the question of its circu- 
lation will require the smallest thought." 

What is a comparison between these great literary 
forces? The one is general, the other special; the 
one is a propagator and defence of Christian doctrines 
and practice ; the other may or may not be the peculiar 
instrument of any school of political thought and scien- 
tific research. The one is merely a strong news medium 
and advertising lagent; the other, a vehicle of virtue, 
truth and love. In their field of work, they are both 
closely allied as educational forces, as public bene- 
factors, and as defenders of morality. 

But the limited time given for the discussion of this 
subject admonishes me that I must close by 'say- 
ing, ''Give us a secular as well as a religious 
press in sympathy with the purposes of the liv- 
ing ministry, and the day of deHverance will soon 
dawn upon our country. Such an alHance would 
smite with paralysis and death every enemy of God 
and home and land. Politics would be cleansed of 
manifold abominations. Government, Municipal, State 
and National, would be honestly administered. That 
accursed traffic in strong drink, which has been justly 
called ''the dynamite of modern cizilization," would 
disappear. Gambling, prize-fighting, harlotry and 
mob violence, would be stamped out of existence. Sudh 



The Scourging of a Race, 153 

a transformation would bring fraternity, tranquillity, 
prosperity, complete and perpetual/' 

"Oh, who would not a hero :be 
In -this, the noblest chivalry? 
If there be those who long to see 
A day-dawn of our victory. 

Work, brothers, work; work hand and brain. 
Let's win a better day again. 
We will, we will true 'heroes be. 
In this, the grandest chivalry/' 



154 The Scourging of a Race, 

The Value of Baptist Principles 
to the American Government. 



Read Before the National Baptist Convention, Atlanta, Ga., 

1595, and the Baptist Ministers' Conference, 

Washington, D. C, 1597, and 

PhlladelplA^a, Pa., 1 595. 



Standing near the banks of the historic Potomac at 
tihe nation's capital, is a marble shaft that lifts its 
head far up above the ci<ty's housetops and silently 
portrays the eminent services to humanity of George 
Washington, as well as the high type of patriotism in 
the American people, who, in mute-tongued eloquence, 
say: 

^'Tread lig^btly here ; this spot is holy ground, 
And every footfall wakes the voice of ages." 

It stands alone. Looking southward upon its out- 
lines, it seems to have been chiseled from the vaulted 
sky, by the Hand that placed the eternal hills and 
establis'hed the waters and the floods. It s-tands as a 
swift witness for great principles that no monument 
of bronze or granite has ever in the history of the 
republic sought to perpetuate. It calls from the death- 
less past, characters Who left an ineffaceable person- 
ality upon all that contributed to the early history of 
America and brought into existence our institutions, 
language and laws. The winds have sighed about it, 
the storms have burst their fury, the seasons with re- 
morseless hands have tried it, and outliving all, it 



The Scourging of a Race, 155 

remains unc'hanged and unchangeable, unhurt amidst 
t?he wreck of matter and the passing of strange events, 
the well filled record unfdding its pages to unborn 
generations, the eloquent orator speaking ever and 
anon of the time wthen ''Trutlh was forever on the scaf- 
fold and wrong forever on the throne." 

So the Baptist denomination stands in its relation 
to the American Government. It occupies a position 
peculiarly its own. It has contributed more to the 
spirit and genius of American institutions; more to- 
wards the molding of that sentiment w^hich has cry- 
stallized itself in the political, civil and religious li- 
berty, guaranteed to our citizens by constitutional law 
and confirmed by each State in securing the right of 
all its people to worship God without molestation. It 
is the father of the amendment to the Constitution, 
which says, ''Congress shall make no law respecting 
the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speedh, 
or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably 
to assemble and petition the Government for redress 
of grievance." 

The very idea of sovereignty in the State is but a 
reproduction of Baptist church polity and practice. It 
left its impress upon the immortal Washington, 
who acknowledged the same in answer to a pe- 
tition sent by a committee of the United Baptist 
churches of Virginia assembled in Richmond, August 
8, 1789, which read as follows : ''When the Consti- 
tution first made its ap^pearance in Virginia, we, as a 
society, feared that the liberty of conscience, dearer 
to us than property or life, was not sufficiently se- 
cured. Perhaps our jealousies were heightened by the 
usage we received in Virginia under the regal Gov- 
ernment, when mobs, fines, bonds, and prisons were 
our freqquent repast. Convinced on the one hand 
that without an effective National Government, the 
States would fall into disunion and all the subsequent 



156 The Scourging of a Race, 

evils, and on the other hand, fearing that we should 
be accessories to some religious oppression, should 
any one society in the Union predominate over the 
rest, yet amidst all these inquietudes of mind, our con- 
solation arose from this consideration — ^the plan must 
be good, for it has the signature of a tried and trusted 
friend, and if religious liberty is rather insecure in the 
Constitution, the administration will certainly prevent 
all oppression if a Washington will preside." To 
which General Washington replied : 'If I could have 
entertained the slightest apprehension that the Con- 
stitution framed by the Convention, where I had the 
honor to preside, might possibly endanger the re- 
ligious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly 
I would never have placed my signature to it; and 
if I could conceive that the general Government might 
ever be so administered as to render the liberty of 
conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that 
no one would be more zealous than myself to estab- 
lish efifectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual 
tyranny and every species of religious persecution. 
While I recollect with satisfaction that the rehgious 
societies of which you are members have been through- 
out America uniformly and almost unanimously the 
firm friends of civil liberty and the persevering pro- 
moters of our glorious Revolution, I cannot hesitate to 
believe that they will be the faithful supporters of the 
free, yet efficient general Government. Under this 
pleasing expectation, I rejoice to assure them that 
they may rely upon my best wishes and endeavors to 
advance their prosperity/' 

Hence, American Baptists, by persistent effort as 
the friends and advocates of soul liberty, used their 
best endeavors in all the colonies, before the adoption 
of the Constitution, to have that feature of funda- 
mental law made so permanent that no time, with 
all its changes, could ever eliminate it. They called 
to their assistance the best brain and character of their 
times, and placed these strong men upon record as 



The Scourging of a Race, 157 

'heartily endorsing their contention. Thomas Jeffer- 
son, possibly an advanced Unitarian, Patrick Henry, a 
devout Presbyterian, and James Madison, thought to 
be a liberal Episcopalian, felt the throb of the public 
heart, saw that its patriotism was founded upon relig- 
ious conviction, and like wise men, instead of stemming 
the stronger tide, they gave it their leadership, under 
which it swept on, notwithstanding the opposition of 
English rectors. I repeat, they had a great advantage 
in securing the co-operation of these immortal three — 
Jefferson, Henry, and Madison — who were the most 
prominently identified with the Revolutionary cause. 
Their immense breadth of mind, logical adherence to 
conclusions drawn from those premises which justi- 
fied the Revolution, broug^ht these mighty men into 
active sympathy with the Baptists several years before 
the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was a 
regular attendant of a small Baptist church, which 
held its monthly meetings a short distance from his 
home. The pastor, on one occasion asked him how he 
was pleased with the church government. Mr. Jeffer- 
son replied that it struck him with great force and 
had interested him much ; that he considered it the only 
form of true democracy then existing in the world, 
and had concluded that it would be the best plan for 
the American colonies. 

Semple says of the immortal patriot and orator, 
Patrick Henry, and of his efforts to obtain full liberty 
of conscience : 'Tt was in making these attempts that 
they, the Baptists were so fortunate as to interest in 
their behalf the celebrated Patrick Henry. Being 
always the friend of liberty, he only needed to be in- 
formed of their oppression. Without hesitation, he 
stepped forward to their relief. From that time to 
the day of their complete emancipation from the 
shackles of tyranny, the Baptists found in Patrick 
Henry an unwavering friend." June 4, 1768, at Fred- 
ericksburg, Va., three men were arraigned as disturb- 



158 The Scourging of a Race, 

ers of the peace, with the folowing charge against 
them : ''These men are great disturbers of the peace. 
They cannot meet a man on the road, but they must 
ram a text of Scripture down his throat/' It was 
just before the Declaration of Independence. The 
King's judges were upon the bench, the King's a.t- 
torney present and aiding in deaHng justice to all 
offenders. The spectators were numerous, for three 
ministers were to be tried for no other offense than 
preaching the Gospel of the Son of God, contrary to 
the statute in that case provided. While the prepara- 
tions for the trial were going on, Patrick Henry en- 
tered the court room unknown to many. The clerk 
was reading the indictment in a slow formal manner, 
pronouncing the crime with emphasis : ''For preach- 
ing the Gospel of the Son of God." The prosecuting 
attorney submitted a few^ words, all he supposed neces- 
sary to convict; the judges were about to pronounce 
the ordinary verdict of condemnation, when Henry 
arose, stretched out his hand, received the paper, and 
commenced a memorable speech. "May it please your 
worships, I think I heard read as I entered this house, 
the paper I noAV hold in my hand. If I have rightly 
understood, the King's attorney of this county has 
framed an indictment for the purpose of arraigning 
and punishing by imprisonment, three inoffensive per- 
sons. May it please the court. What did I hear 
read? Did I hear an expression, as if a crime, that 
these men are charged with what?" And continuing 
in a low, solemn, heavy tone, "For preaching the 
Gospel of the Son of God." Pausing amidst the most 
pronounced silence, and breathless astonishment of 
his hearers, he slowly waved the paper three times 
around his head, then lifting up his hands and eyes 
to heaven, with extraordinary and impressive energy, 
he exclaimed, "Great God !" The exclamation — the 
action — the burst of feeling from the audience were 
all overpowering. "May it please your worships, in 



The Scourging of a Race, 159 

a day like this, when truth is about to burst her fetters 
— When manikind are about to be raised to claim their 
natural and inalienable rights — when the yoke of op- 
pression which has readhed the wilderness of America 
and the unnatural alliance of ecclesiastical and civil 
power is about to be dissevered — at such a period, 
when liberty — ^^liberty of conscience — is about to awake 
from her slumberings and inquire into the reason of 
such charges as I find exhibited 'here to-day in this 
indictment !" Another fearful pause, while the speaker 
alternately cast his siharp, piercing eyes on the court 
and prisoners, he resumed, '*If I am not deceived, ac- 
cording to the contents of the paper which I hold in 
my hand these men are accused of preaching the Gos- 
pel of the Son of God ! Great God ! May it please 
your worships, there are periods in the history of man 
when corruption and depravity 'have so l-ong debased 
the human character that man sinks under the weight 
of the oppressor's hand and becomes his servile, his 
abject slave ; ^he licks the hand that smites him and 
bows in passive obedience to the mandates of the 
despot, and in this state of servility, he receives his 
fetters of perpetual bondage. Such a time has passed 
away. From the period when our fathers left the land 
of their nativity for settlement in the American wilds, 
for liberty — for civil and religious liberty; for liberty 
of conscience, to worship their Creator according to 
their conceptions of heaven s revealed will — from the 
moment they placed their feet on the American con- 
tinent and in the deeply imbedded forest, sought an 
asylum from persecution and tyranny — from that 
moment despotism was crushed ; her fetters of dark- 
ness were broken and Heaven decreed that man should 
be free — free to worship God according to the Bible. 
Were it not for this, in vain have been the efforts 
and sacrifices of the colonists; in vain were all their 
suffering and bloodshed to subjugate this nev^ world, 
if we, their offspring, must still be oppressed and per- 



i6o The Scourging of a Race, 

secuted. But may it please your wors'hips, let me in- 
quire once more, for what are these men about to be 
tried? For preaching the Saviour to Adam's fallen 
race!'' After another pause, in tones of thunder, he 
inquired: "What law have they violated?" The 
court and the audience were now wrought to the most 
intense pitch of excitement. The prosecuting attorney 
was pale and ghastly, his whole frame being agitated 
with alarm. The judge, in a tremulous voice, put an 
end to the scene, by the authoritative command, 
"Sheriff, discharge those men." 

James Madison, the other hero in the strife, offered 
the following to the Bill of Rights : 

"That the religion, or the duty which we owe to our 
Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be 
directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or 
violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled 
to the free exercise of religion according to the dic- 
tates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of 
all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity 
toward each other." 

You have the record of the magnificent services the 
Baptists rendered in the formation of our Govern- 
ment. They suffered untold persecutions because they 
saw in the organic law of the struggling colonies those 
principles which, in unborn generations, should re- 
ceive the unanimous approval of an intelligent, un- 
prejudiced commonwealth. We would not draw to a 
close this argument without at least referring to 
"Roger Williams' True Place in the History of Re- 
ligious Liberty." Roger Williams is neither the father 
of the Baptists, nor of religious liberty. He belongs 
to the chain — ^^to the -true apostolic succession — a fore- 
most man of his age, but himself the child of like- 
minded apostles and martyrs of earlier times. He was 
a stern Puritan, opposed to the liturgy and hierarchy, 
and thus bitterly fought both the established church 



The Scourging of a Race, i6i 

and the crown, for which he was banished under the 
following sentence : 

"Whereas, Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders 
of the Church of Salem, hath broached and divulged 
divers new and dangerous opinions against the au- 
thority of magistrates, asd also written letters of defa- 
mation, both of the magistrates and the churdhes here, 
and that before any conviction, and yet maintaineth 
the same without retraction, it is therefore ordered, 
that the said Mr. Williams shall depart out of this 
jurisdiction within six weeks now ensuing, which, if 
'he neglect to perform, it shall be lawful for the gov- 
ernor and two of the magistrates to send bim to some 
place out of this jurisdiction, not to return any more 
without the license of the court/' 

A clear view of the case may be gathered from the 
'Specifications as summed up before the court by the 
governor, \Vho said, ''Mr. Williams holds forth these 
four particulars : First, That we have not our land 
by patent from the King, but that the natives are the 
true owners of it, and that we ought to repent of such 
a receiving of it by patent ; second, that it is not law- 
ful to call a wicked person to swear, to pray, as being 
actions of God's worship ; third, that it is not lawful 
to hear any of the ministers of the parish assemblies 
in England; fourth, that the civil magistrate's power 
extends only to the bodies and goods, and outward 
state of men," etc. In his letter to Endicott, Williams 
explains the bearings of the fourth point in the gov- 
ernor's summing in these words : ''The point is that 
of the civil magistrate's dealing in matters of con- 
science and religion, and also of persecuting and hunt- 
ing any for any matter merely spiritual and religious." 
Dr. Armitage, in his Baptist History, pays such an 
eloquent tribute to his services, that I shall be content 
to adopt his language as mine : "Since Jesus was sen- 
tenced to death in Asia, on the cool verdict that he was 
a 'just man,' in whom no fault was found, a sublimer 
10 



l62 The Scourging of a Race, 

sigpht 'has not appeared to man than that revealed in 
America on that crisp October morning in 1635. This 
Master in Israel looms up head and shoulders above 
his Puritan judges. Without a stammer or a blush, 
he reaches the full 'height of manhood ; whereupon the 
Bay sentences him to a new leadership. In Salem, 
God threw the mantle of William the Silent upon the 
shoulders of the brave Welshman. What if Massa- 
chusetts did lay her political sins upon his head, and 
send her scape-goat to bear them into 'the desert ? He 
was strong enough to carry the burden of her congre- 
gation and elders. He remembered Pilate, and quietly 
held the bowl for this ancient Court of the Bay to sink 
its sins in the shallows of a basin. He watched the ex- 
periment in the simplicity of a child's faith, in the firm- 
ness of a martyr's will, in the resignation of a cavalier, 
in the calmness of a hero; for God was with him.'' 

For that hour, God brought him into the world. The 
persecution of two worlds inspired him to discover a 
third, where the wicked should cease from troubling. 
A veteran before his sun had rea'ched noon, nerved 
with judicial love of liberty, fired with a hallowed zeal 
to liberate all the conscience bound, he is now ready to 
give life to a new age. Roger, get thee gone into the 
woods to thy work ! And w<hen alone with God, may 
He work His will in thee. 

''Speak, History. Who are life's victors? Unroll thy long 
annals and say, 

Are they those whom the world called victors who won success 
of a day? 

The martyrs or 'Nero? The Spartans who fell at Ther- 
mopylae's try Sit, 

Or the Persians and Xerxes? His Judges or Socrates? 
Pilate or Christ?" 

American Baptists builded better than they knew. 
The Government owes more to the patriotism in these 
people than to any other religious denomination. 



The Scourgi7ig of a Race, 163 

*'The sentiment of patriotism is not merely associated 
with the clods of the valley which gave us birth. It 
is composed of the recollections of the great men our 
country has produced ; of their heroic and beneficent 
actions ; of affections for its institutions, its manners, 
its fame in arts and in arms. This sentiment must be 
cherished and invigorated by associating with it an 
enlightened love of liberty, a taste for knowledge, and 
an ardent enthusiasm for those arts which lend to hu- 
man existence its most refined enjoyments." — Henry 
Wheaton. 

The immortal Clay once said, ''Every act of noble 
sacrifice to the country, every instance of patriotic 
devotion to her cause, bas its beneficial influence. A 
nation's character is the sum of its splendid deeds; 
they constitute one common patrimony, the nation's 
inheritance. They are foreign powers, they arouse 
and animate our own people. I love true glory. It is 
this sentiment w'hich ought to be cherished ; and in 
spite of cavils, and .sneers, and attempts to put it down, 
it will finally conduct this nation to the height to which 
God and nature have destined it.'' 

The greatest nation on earth is America ; great in its 
wide and varied natural resources ; its ^sweeping rivers 
creeping majestically and silently to their outlets; in its 
broad lakes, bearing upon their restless bosoms the 
white-winged messengers of commerce ; in its tower- 
ing mountains, whose rugged peaks bathe their hoary 
heads in the clouds ; its fertile valleys, in whose pro- 
ductive soil wave the golden wheat, the white-capped 
cotton, or the nutritious rice; great in its extensive 
plains, inviting the pasture of rich blooded stock and 
extending its freedom to the prancing and fiery steed ; 
in its multitudinous grades of minerals whose veins 
traverse circuitous routes in subterranean chambers. 

Great in intellectual giants; producing sc'holars, 
scientists, artists, philosophers — ^who in their ramblings 
have discovered the secrets of the most distant stars. 



164 The Scourging of a Race, 

vanquis'hed time and space, taught the vapors to toil, 
the ligihtninig to speak, and the winds to worship, stolen 
the witchery of earth and sky and gathered them into 
her enchanted chambers, and by books have echoed the 
crash of revolutions and the silent thunders of thought. 

Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
Wiho never to himself hath said, 
*'This is my own, my native land !" 
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, 
As ihome his footsteps he hath turned, 
From wandering on a foreign strand? 
If such there breaithe, go, mark him well. 
For him no ministrel raptures swell, 
High though his titles, proud his name — 
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; 
Despite those titles, power, and pelf, 
The wretdh, concentrated all in self. 
Living, shall forfeit fair renown. 
And, doubly dying shall go down 
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung. 
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung. 

WaIvTEr Scott. 

So the early fathers of our beloved denomination 
evinced this remarkable type of patriotism in the in- 
terest taken in such legislation as would forever pro- 
tect the citizens in the freedom of conscience, from the 
king clothed in the imperial robes of majesty to the 
shivering beggar at our gates. Amidst all the changes 
wihioh time has produced in the tenets of others, it 
may well be the glory of our denomination that Bap- 
tists 'have continued steadily true to their mission as 
witnesses for soul liberty, as opposed to the union of 
church and state; as in favor of Christian education 
purity of life, and demanding for all church existence 
and action, the authority of the Scriptures. Their 
members have never varied, but alike in adversity and 
prosperity; in evil report and good report; in the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century as in the latter part 
of the nineteenth; in the Old World as well as the 
New, they have persevered as the firm, unflinching, 



The Scoter ging of a Race, 165 

undeviating advocates of all those principles and doc- 
trines Which tend to fill this world with a glorious 
humanity. 

The limited time allowed for this paper will not per- 
mit me to show how closely they have been allied with 
our public isohool system, from its beginning to the 
present; nor how much of philanthropy they have 
directed itowards the establishment and perpetuity, of 
some of the best educational institutions in the:COuntry ; 
or what splendid types of manhod they hav©-^ven to 
public service, both in the executive chair, upon the 
judicial 'throne, and in halls of legislation. Let history 
speak for itself. 

"Does the world owe nothing to Baptists for all this ? 
What, but for them, speaking humanly, would have 
become of the truth ? What if they had yielded to the 
force of circumstances, and for riches, and honors, 
and ease, and life, had given up the contest? What 
if they had adopted the world-wise policy of multi- 
tudes then and now, for themselves and families, and 
made no resistance to the encroachment of error; or 
having contended for a time, had shrewdly decided 
that they had made their share of sacrifice for the 
world, and would henceforth look to their own in- 
terest? What if they had abandoned the world to 
'Tagans" first ; then to 'Tapists ;'' then to '-Reform- 
ers," just emerging from total night; and then to the 
"Pilgrim Fathers,'' w^hose eyes still were but partly 
opened to the sunshine of perfect liberty? What had 
been the consequence? How would the progress of 
the world have been retarded? Where now had been 
the boasted nineteenth century, with the bright tints of 
millennial day, marking its horizon, precursors of the 
glorious rising sun T' 

"What, then, are the duties especially incumbent on 
us under such circumstances ? To this question it may 
be briefly replied that, if we would maintain our posi- 
tion, we must, in the first place, cultivate with growing 



1 66 The Scotirgi?ig of a Race, 

earnestness, inteHigent and warm-hearted piety; we 
must adopt measures for the exposition and diffusion 
of our sentiments, on those points on which we differ 
from other TeHgious denominations; we must extend 
our Christian influence by home missionary efforts, 
conducted on a Hberal scale ; we must foster rising 
talent, and give to all the Lord's servants opportunities 
of being employed in His cause, according to their re- 
spective gifts ; we must cherish an enthusiastic zeal for 
education; we must eft'ectually engage the sympathies 
of the young ; we must be ever ready to promote social 
improvements and forward phi'lanthropic designs; and 
we must exemplify, in the whole, unbroken union, de- 
votedness to the Savior and believing reliance on di- 
vine aid.'' 



The Scourging of a Race, 167 

The Church as a ractor in the 
Pace Problem. 



Read Before the y^fro-American Council, WasKlngton, D. C, 

1900. 



The church is the whole body of believers, of every 
age and clime ; it is based upon the great principle that 
Christianity is a social religion; it is in purpose and 
effort the outward ex'hibition of Christ^s kingdom in 
the world. It is exponential of all the doctrines He 
taught and a reflex of His immaculate and exalted life. 
Its ideal character is to be sought in the person and 
work of Christ 'himself. He is its central figure ; its 
inspiration ; its criterion for moral excelience. 

All the current of truth and goodness which has 
been flowing as a living iS/tream through the history 
of the world, has been given origin and force through 
the influence of the church. It is the author of every 
great moral reform, both in individual and national 
life, nor can it fulfill its mission until humanity shall 
be regenerated and sanctified and presented to God's 
throne, ''without spot or wrinkle or any suc'h thing.'' 

While we do not believe in a union of church and 
state, we regard it as the primary duty of the church 
to make its influence felt, in the entire community, 
moulding a healthy sentiment, shaping legislation, de- 
veloping high ideals for character, and taking the in- 
itiatory in all things that hdp to make the world better. 

The church stands for the oldest as well as the most 
invincible system of truth in the world, hence it comes 



1 68 The Scourging of a Race, 

to men with the voice of authority — an authority that 
all the skepticism and infidelity of all the ages has never 
been able to iset aside, nor can it, for heaven and eartjh 
may pass away, but divine truth never. 

Now, since it holds such positional eminence among 
men ; since at is the only authority for the settlement of 
differences between man and man, the breaking down 
of the middle wall of prejudice; since by teaching the 
world the best and highest and purest lessons of love, 
it is 'Softening and mellowing men's selfish dispositions 
and hastening the period when "the lion and the lamb 
shall lie down together, and a little dhild shall lead 
them ;'' its mission shall not be accomplished until, by 
its teachings, it shall develop a new humanity, a new 
ckizenslhip, free from race hatred and proscription — ^a 
reproduction of the life of the humble Nazarene. 

That there is in this country a Race Problem is pain- 
fully apparent. It is confined to no particular locality, 
taking upon itself one form in the South, another in 
the North. The formation of sterling character; the 
acquisition of wealth; the educational and religious 
contact with the whites of all sections only seem to 
aggravate our condition and make the problem more 
complicated. By some unwritten law, white men of 
all sections of this country have decided to permit the 
Negro to advance just so far; and then by unjust leg- 
islation and intimidation ; by openly and ruthlessly de- 
priving him of every guaranteed political as well as 
civil right ; by murder and outlawry calculated to make 
demons quake with fear lest Christian men cheat them 
out of their demoniac records ; by a wicked and sense- 
less prejudice that is transmitted from sire to son and 
thus kept always alive; by an oppression worse than 
that from which we were lately delivered, they fet- 
ter and burden and wither our manhood and 
womanhood, blind to all we have contributed toward 
the wealth and power of the American people, in every 
war they have ever waged. I say, when in the midst 



The Scourging of a Race, 169 

of this country there are two civilizations, the one 
weak and left at the mercy of the cold indifference and 
mean ingratitude of its stronger alh^ there is a prob- 
lem, and one which will never be solved until both 
races are influenced and swayed by the teachings of 
Him who came, ''to proclaim deliverance to the cap- 
tive and to set at liberty them that are bruised/' 

The immortal Frederick Douglass, in recognition of 
the deplorable conditions of this people, in an elo- 
quent outburst in 1883, said: ''It is the Negro's lot 
to live in a land -w-here every presumption is against 
him, unless we except the presumption of worthless- 
ness and inferiority. If his course is downward, he 
meets very little resistance, but if upward, his way is 
disputed at every turn of the road. If he comes in 
rags and wretdhedness, he answers every demand for 
a Negro and provokes no anger, but if he presumes to 
be a gentleman and a scholar, he is entirely out of his 
place. If he offers himself to a builder as a mechanic, 
to a client as a lawyer, to a patient as a p'hysician, to a 
university as a professor, or to a department as a clerk, 
no matter w^hat may be his ability or his attainments, 
there is a presumption based on his color or his pre- 
vious condition, of incompetency, and if he succeeds at 
all, he has to do so against these discouraging odds.'* 

Now how far can the church affect these conditions? 
How far-reaching shall be her doctrines? She can 
shrink no responsibilteies ; nor wink at sin and wicked- 
ness and excuse herself upon the plea that they are 
outside of her jurisdiction. While her work is spirit- 
ual, it is also moral, and therefore affects the social 
condition of men. She can not condone wTong. Her 
founder thundered from Sinai, ''Thou shalt not kill'' 
and the apostle to the Gentiles gave us an epitome of 
the gospel in these w^ords : "Finally, brethren, w^hat- 
soever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 
whatsoever things are just, Avhatsoever things are pure, 
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of 



170 The Scourging of a Race, 

good report ; if there be any virtue and if there be any 
praise, think on these things." The church must stand 
upon the side of the weak and oppressed. Her arms 
must be extended wide, to support those who need 
sympathy. 

The most effective human agency she must use is a 
God-called and God-fearing misistry. If the gentle- 
men of the cloth, that occupy the pulpits of the white 
churches, would preach less of science and more of the 
religion of Christ — the religion that teaches the Father- 
hood of God and the brotherhood of man ; if they 
would throw off fear of the people and preach a pure, 
unadulterated gospel, denouncing sin and wickedness 
and urging the people to observe the golden rule; if 
they would rise above race prejudice themselves and 
like true men of God, tell the people the truth, the 
church would be a mig'hty factor in solving the prob- 
lem. 

We have heard only one w^hite gospel minister that 
is brave enough to denounce mob law and murder, 
and he (God bless him) is Dr. Hawthorne, of Georgia. 
Now, if the pulpit were not muzzled and gagged, it 
wouJd cry aloud against the sin of murder, especially 
in the South. The church is dying for the need of a 
strong, brave, conscientious ministry. A ministry that 
will lift up its voice like a trumpet. A John the Bap- 
tist crying, ''O generation of vipers,'' or a Paul before 
Agrippa ; a ministry that exclaims, with Seneca's pilot 
to Neptune : 

"You may sink me or you may save me, 
But I will hold my rudder true." 

A bold, aggressive ministry ; unmoved by the frowns 
of men, .unmoved by a public sentiment that is as god- 
less as it is senseleS'S. A Luther and Calvin, a Cran- 
mer and Lattimer, a Savonarola and John Wesley — ^ 
their preaching was sharper than tw^o-edged swords or 
'pointed arrows freslh from the quiver, for it lifted 



The Scourging of a Race, 171 

the gates of empires from their hinges, made kings 
tremble upon their throne at day and toss upon their 
beds at nig'ht ; broke down the meanness of the human 
heart, and gave place for the entrance of light and 
iife and truth. 

In Holywood, Mary Queen of Scots wept at the sin- 
cere words of Jdhn Knox. O ! for a modern John 
Knox, who would point out to the American people^ 
in the flush of national glory, the national sin of race 
hatred, race murder, race oppression. 

The clergy of the other race can never make me feel 
that they are friends to the Negro, until they thunder 
against lynch-law, against the inhumanity, the barbar- 
ism of roasting God's handiwork alive. It was a sad 
commentary on ithe Anglo-Saxon's Ohristianity, when, 
during the Wilmington riots, the ministry left the 
sacred place and bedraggled their robes in the filth and 
dirt and blood of politics ; a sad picture for the dhurch 
to present to the world, Christian ministers aiding and 
abetting murder to gain political and racial power. 
The pulpit must teach higher and nobler and better 
things, if Ohrist's kingdom is to come and his will be 
done. How shall they ever preach from the text, 
''Thou shalt not kill?'' Christianity and the Church 
comprehends the utter destruction of this spirit of 
retaliation and revenge; its mission is to make men 
Christ-like. Christ instituted the ministry that they 
might ibe his ambassadors, suing for peace and love ; 
the very gospel they should preach, is opposed to blood- 
shed and murder. If the doctrines of Christ are hon- 
estly and faithfully taught, every problem which is the 
result of the depravity of the human heart will find a 
happy solution. No other force can so quickly and 
effectually accomplish this, like the pure gospel. 

Nor is the white church alone to contribute to the 
solution of this problem. There is a dreadful responsi- 
bility upon the Negro ministry. We must insist upon 
it that there be a reform in the morality of our peo- 



172 The Scourging of a Race. 

pie. That Christianity and immoraHty are enemies; 
that he best honors Christ who reproduces him in his 
whole life. We must attempt to reach that class of 
our people who are moral lepers, spreading their deadly 
disease far and wide and offering an excuse for much 
of the injustice that is heaped upon us. The Christian 
church is upon record. The eyes of the civilized world 
are upon it. The skeptic, infidel, scoffers ask, "Is the 
Christianity of the church equal to the task?" Un- 
born generations will see us as we are — ^^black and white 
alike. They will marvel that the church did not rise 
above its prejudice, and will make our sins impedi- 
ments in their way to God and heaven. 

We must not lose faith in God and the church. If 
the prayers of our mothers and fathers emancipated 
the enshackled hosts in the dark, dark days of human 
bondage, the enlightened faith of a mighty army of 
God-fearing people to-day will yet find their way out 
of this wilderness of sin and death. 



The Scourging of a Race, 173 



The Divinity of tt^e Churcti. 



An Address Delivered at the Corner-Stone Laving of tl\e 
nt. Olive Baptist Church, Cambridge, riass., 1595. 



God has given to the world three distinct organiza- 
tions — the church, the state, and the home. Each of 
these moves in its legitimate and divinely ordained 
sphere ; each is governed by its peculiar laws and works 
out the great purposes underlying its existence. There 
is a co-relation between them, as there is running 
through all the works of God. The Creator intended 
that this trinity of forces should contribute much to- 
ward the unifying and civilizing of the human race ; 
that they should steadily give to men of all nations and 
climes a solidarity of purpose and character, that 
should reflect the wisdom and power of the God of 
the universe. Their place in the human family is in- 
deed unique — ^unique because divinely estabHshed — 
for we can not conceive of any condition of society 
that is high and exalted, which is not the direct se- 
quence of one or all of these three influences which has 
swept across the face of this earth, regenerating all 
things; revolutionizing all things, christianizing all 
things. 

The home, with its altar of praise, its celestial atmos- 
phere, its ties that bind the soul with bands of steel; 
its associations, pure, elevating, ennobling; here is 
the merry laughter of childhood mingling with the 
fatherly counsel and advice of old age; here, the silent 
movement of that mother-queen, who manages the af- 
fairs of her kingdom, not with standing armies, nor 



174 "The Scourging of a Race, 

mighty navies, but with a heaven-born smile and a 
tender touch and an angel presence. It is God who 
uncurtains eternity and gives to the place a vision of 
heaven, or plants in the soul such a deep and abiding 
love for home that no matter where the future may be 
cast, under what dark clouds of sorrow; amidst what 
barbarism or distress, the soul in its longings, as spon- 
taneously as a sigh, cries with John Howard Payne : 

" 'Mid pleasures and palaces tho' we may roam, 

Be it ever so humble there's no place like home, 

A oharm from tlhe skies seems to hallow us there 

Which, seek thro' the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere." 

Emanating from this holy place, come the char- 
acters, upon Avhose broad shoulders rests the govern- 
ment of state. Otit of this mould comes the man with 
those elements of worth that must stand at the helm 
upon the ship of state and steadily guide the affairs of 
national life. 

God has entwined the home and state into a con- 
secrated union and set the seal of divine approval upon 
the two, and ''what God hath joined together let not 
man put asunder.'' However mighty is their influence, 
or beautiful in their activity, may be the kingdoms and 
empires of earth, they are but a reflex of the beauty 
and undeveloped resources of the home. All the mag- 
nificent heroism of our 'boys at the front, their deeds 
of unsurpassed daring as well as the wild outbursts 
of patriotism which, like an unchained tornado, sweeps 
all before it, and still staggers on, drunk in its madden- 
ing fury, adding victory to victory and glory to glory. 
All this splendid display of American manhood is but 
the glorious fruitage of the seed sown in the tender 
soil of 'home, watered, nurtured by the genius of Ameri- 
can life, having ripened into the first fruits of a glorious 
harvest. All hail to the home and state ! 

But overshadowing both of these potent forces, is 
that celestial spirit — the church, born in the infinite 



The Scourging of a Race, 175 

mind of the infinite God ; back in the undated ages of 
imHmited space ; back amidst the silence of the counsel 
chambers of eternity; back where the draperies of 
eternity fell in awful folds to hide from angelic curi- 
osity the doings of uncreated majesty; away back in 
the presence of the adorable and holy Three, where 
human eye had never pierced and human foot had 
never trod, there sitting clothed with light as with a 
garment and dashing from their fingers, new worlds, 
and from new worlds, new subjects to do heaven's 
high behests, and in the subjects new ideals and 
purposes to gradually unfold the great master pur- 
poses of the infinite, transcendently holy, eternally 
great and good Ruler of the universe. So the church 
was born — out of the mind of God, his own creation 
born for the development of his own plan so far as 
it related to all worlds and peoples and ages. 

He was the architect, drawing its plan and selecting 
the material that was to compose the building. How 
rich in variance was to be its constituent parts ! 

He sounded the keynote of its operation and gave a 
faint forecast of its membership, in the great com- 
mission, the marching orders of his church, ''Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the gospel." 

''All the world.'' From the turbaned Oriental to 
the shivering Esquimaux ; from the widd dwellers in 
caves and bushes to the home of the rich and noble; 
from the depth of heathenism and darkness into the 
center of civilization, until sin and vice and wickedness 
shall be supplanted by the reign of love and joy and 
the white-winged dove of peace shall build its nest in 
the cannon's mouth and God's Fatherhood and man's 
brotherhood be accepted as the essential law of heaven 
and earth. 

The church is founded upon the immutability of 
His sovereignty and omnipotence; built upon the in- 
finitude of His own perfections. It is as old as its 
Founder, having existed in his infinite mind before all 



176 The Scourging of a Race. 

worlds, even from the beginning, whatever that un- 
calendared hour was. 

For the voice of inspiration breaks in upon the 
silence of a newly created world, and as it begins the 
first revolution upon its axis, thunders, 'Tn the begin- 
ning God created heaven and earth." When, O thou 
King eternal; when, O thou Master Builder, didst 
spring all the harmony and order and beauty that I 
find in me and about me? And the voice exclaimed, 
In the beginning! Back of flying clouds; rolling 
floods, chaotic confusion. Before angelic legions or 
hills immortal; back in the beginning. 

It is God's churdh. ''Upon this Rock I build m}- 
churc'h." ''I the Lord do keep it ; I will water it every 
moment ; lest any hurt it.'' — Isa, xxvii, j. 

"No weapon formed against thee shall prosper and 
every tongue that riseth in judgment I will condemn." 
David, Israel's sweet singer, exclaims, ''Glorious things 
are spoken of thee, O city of God." She is spoken of 
as, ''God's beloved'' Psa. Ix, 5 — ''Peculiar people/' I 
Peter ii, 9 — "God's Heritage," Jer. xii, 7 — "His Jewels" 
— "Flock of God" — "King's daughter" Psa. xlv, 13 — 
"Fold of Christ/' John x, 16. 

Light of the world — apple of his eye — Bride — 
Lamb's wife. Rev. xxi, p — "And I saw a new heaven 
and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first 
earth were passed away. And there wa-s no more sea. 
And I, John, saw the holy city. New Jerusalem, coming 
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride 
adorned for her husband." Now, what does the church 
stand for in the community and world ? It is composed 
of the best type of manfeod and womanhood. In her 
walls dwell the temperate, just, righteous, merciful, 
holy, Christly citizenship. Her people are peaceable, 
for their ruler is the Prince of peace and peacable dis- 
positions predominate their minds. 

The church has always been the pioneer of every 
great moral reform ; no matter whether in the home or 



The Scourging of a Race, 177 

state. T'he church 'has only to speak and men hearken 
and obey. It is not only the voice of authority ; it is the 
voice of God. Every great reform that has blessed 
the world has been born in the dhurch ; and every great 
reformer has drawn his best inspiration, his higliest 
incentives from the church and its invincible leader- 
ship. In the patriarchal, prophetic, apostolic or post- 
apostolic ages, the leaders of all reforms drew their in- 
spiration and got their best impressions from the 
church. How long the list of these immortal names 
that stand as stars of the first magnitude in the mag- 
nificent firmament of moral reformers ! Moses and 
Jeremiah ; John the Baptist, and Paul of Tarsus, Chris- 
tian martyrs, and Calvin, Luther, Cranmer, Wycklifife, 
John How^ard, Wesley, Elliott, Roger Williams, its 
Garrisons, Phillips, Stearns, Sumners, Pillsburys, 
Douglasses, and an innumerable host of princely spirits, 
whose voices are long since hushed in the silence of 
death and whose lives stand out amongst us immor- 
talized by splendor and fragrant with good deeds. 

The church is the precursor of all civilization. All 
this grand order and improvement you see about us is 
the unfolding of the truth underlying the church and 
of which it is an exponent. We are beneficiaries of the 
past. We owe a debt of eternal gratitude to all the 
great men who honored God with a noble life and 
sought to work in harmony with the divine mind in 
developing man and lifting him heavenward. Say 
what you will, these closing 'hours of the nineteenth 
century are big with significance. God is working out 
his plans among the nations of the earth. The handful 
of corn upon the top of the mountain is beginning to 
yield a glorious harvest; kingdoms built upon cen- 
turies of bloodshed and oppression are tottering and 
falling ; the stronghold of Roman Catholicism is trem- 
bling upon its foundation and there is close at hand a 
verification of the prophecy, ''I will overturn, and over- 
turn, until He shall come whose right it is." 
11 



178 The Scourging of a Race. 

The prophet fixed his eye upon this very hour when 
down through the unborn centuries, he shot his vision, 
as swift as a thunderbolt from the sky, and said, "Men 
shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase on 
the earth/' How true! See the triumph of human 
genius to-day. All through the church. Science has 
searched out the deep things of nature; surprised the 
secrets of the most distant stars; disentombed the 
memorials of the everlasting hills; taught the vapor 
to toil; the winds to worship, and the lightning to 
speak; tunneled the longest mountain range, spanned 
the sweeping rivers, made the world a vast whispering 
gallery and brought foreign nations into one civilized 
family. 

It has stolen the -witdhery of the earth and sky and 
gathered them into her enchanted palace and by the 
printed page has echoed the crash of revolution; by 
the silent thunders of thought has unihinged the gates 
of empires, made the monarch's crown to set uneasy 
upon his brow, while his kingdom became the kingdom 
of our Lord and his Christ. 

The church has created all the sentiment that has 
resulted in this civilization of ours; it is responsible 
for all the purity of life and beauty of character found 
in the individual and nation. 

The best and highest jurisprudence is but the reflex 
of the principle of God's Zion. From the midst of her, 
God has given the world its grandest statesmanship; 
look upon Daniel, the product of Old Testament econ- 
omy, and Gladstone, the representative of New Testa- 
ment times. It has given us the highest type of in- 
trepid leadership; see Moses, Joshua and Queen Vic- 
toria, Washington and Lincoln; its most heroic and 
patriotic warriors, David, Constantine, Grant; its 
loftiest poets and truest historians, and has steadily 
poured forth streams of blessings into every class and 
condition of humanity. 

The church is the friend of humanity ; the asylum for 



The Scourging of a Race, 179 

all nations. Its doctrines are true and elevating. It 
only asks that its discipleship shall march under this 
standard, with its tripple declaration, ''One Lord, one 
Faith, one Baptism." Then shall it see the travail of 
its soul and be satisfied, and when the unnumbered 
hosts of eartFs blood-bought and sanctified shall crowd 
celestial seats, or climb hills immortal, there shall go 
forth victorious shouts of the ransomed, ''Redeemed, 
redeemed, out of every nation, and people and tongue, 
and made kings and priests to God.'' 

It is argued that the church should not lift its voice 
in things pertaining to the state, but silently sit and 
look on, as an interested spectator, for fear it may soil 
its garments or lose its influence. This is the argu- 
ment of those who do not stop to consider that Chris- 
tianity does not antagonize citizenship, nor is it in- 
tended to quench the fires of patriotism. 

Jesus said : "Render unto Caesar the things that 
are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's," 
thereby divorcing the two, in the sense of giving each 
a fairer and freer activity. Give the earthly authority 
the loyalty that it demands and to iheavenh^ authority 
whatever it demands. 

Christianity does not destroy individuality. The 
mental peculiarities remain the same. The status of 
the individual before the law remains the same, it be- 
ing expected only, that the individual with new ideals 
and principles shall contribute to the well-being of the 
community a loftier sentiment of right and justice, a 
purer character, and a better life. 

Now the church lifts up the standard for the peo- 
ple. This is one of the thimgs Christ meant when he 
said : "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will 
draw all men unto me." 

We have to-day an exihibition of the splendid effects 
Christianity has upon the nations of the earth. The 
waging of war upon humanitarian principles is a thing 
unheard of in the annals of warfare, among any people. 



i8o The Scourging of a Race. 

And yet, this is what Christianity has done for the 
nations of the earth — ^awakened a miglhty nation to the 
cry of the oppressed and forced her to bare her breast 
to the leaden bullet ; and offer her sons upon the altar 
of sacrifice and sufferings, in order that the oppressor 
may be driven from among men and the wounds of 
the oppressed be bound up and healed. Christianity 
finds its best expression in the gifts it offers. It is a sys- 
tem of giving — 'God gave 'his Son. His Son gives to 
believers eternal life, and they in turn are commanded 
to give the best they have, the best they are and the 
best they may be, upon the altar of Christian service. 

And since we are proceeding upon these humanitar- 
ian principles, may we not hope that the conscience of 
the nation may be aroused to the cry of hundreds of 
widows and orphans in the far away South, whose hus- 
bands and fathers have been ruthlessly shot, burned at 
the stake, roasted alive, tortured and murdered in a 
way that would make the untutored and uncivilized 
savage who has never heard of humanity, stand still 
and shudder at a barbarian that sinks beneath that of 
the blackest heathenism that has ever scarred and 
damned the face of the earth. 

God hasten the day when the conscience of America 
shall be awakened. 



The Scourging of a Race. i8i 

Christian Resources of afro- 
Americans. 



Read Before the American Association of Educators, at 
Nashville, Tenn., December, 159 1. 



fe 



George William Cable, foremost among the de- 
fenders of Negro rights in the present century, beau- 
tifully and eloquently describes in his ''Silent South'' 
the Statue of Lee. '*In Tivoli Circle, New Orleans, 
from the center an apex of its green, flowery mound, 
an immense column of pure white marble rises in 
the fair unfrowning majesty of Grecian proportions 
high up above the city's housetops into the dazzling 
sunshine and fragrant gales of the delta. On its 
dizzy top stands the bronze figure of one of the world's 
greatest captains. He is all alone. Not one of his 
mighty lieutenants stands behind, beside or below him. 
Only his sword remains, hanging motionless in its 
scabbard. Hi-s arms are folded on that breast that 
never knew fear, and his calm, dauntless gaze meets 
the morning sun as it rises, like the new prosperity of 
the land 'he loved and served so masterly, above the 
far distant battlefields, where so many thousands of 
his gray veterans lie in the sleep of fallen heroes." 

A quarter of a century ago, this was an absolutely 
true picture of the Afro-American. Lifted suddenly 
to an eminence, where he became the observed of all 
observers, the subject of debate upon the rostrum, in 
state and national Senate, in magazine and newspaper 
article, at home and abroad, the problem inviting a 



1 82 The Scourging of a Race. 

legion of solutions, from the most Utopian to the most 
disparaging view of his manhood, the watched and 
criticised, the hated and oppressed, by the combined 
wisdom, wealth, and statesmanship of his enemies. 
He stood alone. Shackles of physical slavery broken 
and scattered at his feet, he turned his face to the 
future which confronted him, with no civil and political 
status, and pointed its mocking finger at his poverty 
and ignorance, saying, ''Constitutional amendments 
have made you free, but the rights and privileges that 
are the freeman's priceless heritage, it will be many 
generations before you enjoy." 

The eleventh census (1890) informs us that the 
population of the United States is 62,622,250. Of this 
number 8,000,000 are Afro-Americans. This official 
count of the population of the country stands for the 
people who make the history of the nation, develop 
its vast resources, multiply its industries, create its 
enterprises, establish its commerce, insure its foreign 
and domestic tranquillity, and in every way advance 
the highest Christian civilization. 

These 62,622,250 persons constitute the American 
nation, in interest and destiny one — one and insepar- 
able. But— 

^'Here stands the iNegro, nature's outcas/t child, 
Scorned by his brethren ; but his mother's eye, 
That gazes from her warmest sky, 
Sees in his flexile limbs untutored grace, 
Power on his forehead, beauty in his face ; 
Sees in his breast, where lawless passions rove 
The heart of friendship and the home of love; 
Sees in his mind where desolation reigns 
Fierce as his clime, uncultured as his plains ; 
A soil where virtue's fairest flowers might shoot, 
And trees of science bend with glo-rious fruit; 
Sees in his soul involved /with thickest night 
An emanation of eternal light/' 

He is interwoven into the being of the nation. In its 
life blood, its homes, and schools; its industries and 



The Scourging of a Race, 183 

enterprises; its victories and defeats. Its legislatures 
can not enact a law, its courts render a decision, its 
political parties gain a victory, without affecting him. 
Its learned professions, its classic lore, its poetry and 
music, its oratory and literature are all affected by the 
brother in black. He is a permanent element of Ameri- 
can national life. Not dangerous to her well being, 
because he is Christian and progressive. Not vicious, 
because he is industrious and rapidly becoming in- 
telligent; not a pauper, because a tax payer on $263,- 
000,000 in property ; not criminal, because of the 45,233 
convicts in penitentiaries in the United States in 1890 
30,546 were white and 14,687 colored, while the for- 
eign-born element numbered 7,267, nearly one-half as 
many as the colored. No, the Afro-American stands 
for Christian religion and morality, industry, and in- 
telligence, improvement in temperance and economy, 
and all the other elements of national strength. 

The resources of a nation is a broad term; it in- 
cludes whatever may be its character in history, gov- 
ernment, laws, and institutions. It furnishes a subject 
inexhaustible for the historian, scientist, philosopher, 
and jurist. 

The Christian resources of a nation comprehend all 
there is in its history, institutions, laws, homes, and 
hearts, of Christ and the Bible. The Christian re- 
sources of Afro-Americans narrows the discussion 
to one class of individuals, and makes it necessary to 
show what their resources are and how they may pirop- 
erly be called Christian. 

Under the general term wealth the subject of Afro- 
American resources may be included; wealth of men, 
as it relates to character; wealth of character, which 
is the logical result of scholarsihip, in science, litera- 
ture, or any of the moral and intellectual channels 
that are character-contributing forces ; wealth of ma- 
terial, as seen in the acquirement of real and personal 
property; in business enterprise and industrial pur- 



184 The Scourging of a Race. 

suits; in the establishment of educational institutions 
and the conduct of missionary enterprises, irrespective 
of denominational connection, and in the support of 
charitable and benevolent institutions. 

Wealth, as the rock upon which the individual may 
rest (his feet, ^solidly and comfortably; as the source 
from v^hich his strength idoes come, enabling him to 
compete with other races or with other forces, which 
will ultimately destroy him, unless subdued by the 
right arm of strength, which this wealth has nerved 
and hardened. 

But is the Afro-American in possession of this 
prolific and transforming power? Has he the wealth 
of men as a constituent of character ? The short time 
allowed for the reading of this paper will only admit 
of an epitomized statement. 

Character is human nature in its best form; it is 
moral order individualized. Men of character are 
not only the conscience of society, but in every well 
governed state they are its best motive power, for it 
is moral qualities that rule the world. 

The lamented Garfield says, ''Character is the re- 
sult of two great forces; the initial force, which the 
Creator gave it when he called the man into being; 
and the force of all the external influence and culture 
that mould and modify the development of a life.'' 

That character is power is true in a much higher 
sense than that knowledge is power. Mental develop- 
ment without heart; intelligence without proper con- 
duct; cleverness without morality are powers as mis- 
chievous as they are dangerous. The Afro-American 
has a just claim to this nobility of life. There are 
those among us who are the peers of the noblemen of 
•any race. We are wealthy in great men, not so much 
in an affluence of qauntity as of quality. Few as these 
may be, they stand forth as worthy representatives of 
an oppressed people. Foremost in the ranks of the 
patrician host, stand the names of Frederick Doug'lass, 



The Scourging of a Race, 185 

peerless in eloquence of oratory, in masterly anti- 
slavery agiitation, in purity of conduct in public posi- 
tion of honor and trust, an emiinent patriot and dis- 
tinguished statesman. Standing by his side is the 
irreproachable and invincible triumvirate, John Mercer 
Langston, the orator, jurist, diplomat and college 
president; Blanche K. Bruce, ex-United States Sen- 
ator, Register of United States Treasury, and de- 
fender of his people's rights ; and John R. Lynch, 
orator, lawyer, and Congressmian. Prominent in law 
we have Straker, Greener, Settle, Burns, Gibbs, 
Smythe. In science, Banneker Solomon Brown, J. 
D. Baltimore, Granville T. Woods. 

In medicine, Purvis Shadd, Dismond, Cook, 
Scruggs, Watson, Boyd. As educators. Price, Grande- 
son, Gregory, Page, Washington, Cardoza, J. H. 
Johnston, Montgomery, Councill, Mitchell, Jones, 
Puree, Gilbert, Clark, Hayes, and the late Dr. Simmons 
of blessed memory. As linguists, Scarborough, Holmes, 
Corbin. As historians, Williams, Wilson, Penn, Ta3dor. 

In journalism, ^Mitchell, Fortune, Cooper, Tanner, 
Coppin, Smith, Penn, Perry, Stcw^ard, Cromwell, Pel- 
'ham, Adams, Dancy, Bruce, and Alex. Clark. In the 
ecclesiastical world. Bishops Payne, Tanner, Turner, 
Arnett, Brooks, Hood, Holsey, Moore, Drs. Derrick, 
Lee, Townsend, Price, Harvey Johnson, Perry, Braw- 
ley. Miller, Crumwell, Grimke, Stewart, Clanton, 
and many others in the humbler walks of life, who are 
mighty forces in the resources of the race. 

In that excellent book just published by I. Garland 
Penn, ''The Afro-American Press and Its Editors,'' 
the following sta'tement is made : 

'Tn 1889 there were 16,000 common schools in the 
South taught by Afro- American teachers, and attended 
by 1,000,000 Afro-American children. There are now 
in the South 2.000,000 Afro-Americans who can read 
and write. The ministry is receiving many additions 
of brilliant and competent young men. The confer- 



1 86 The Scourging of a Race. 

ences, convenitions, associations, presbyteries, and 
councils will not admit men who are not trained for 
pastoral labors. 

''In almost every city of the South there are Afro- 
American physicians, from one to four in numben 
Many are growing wealthy, possessing property rang- 
ing from $20,000 to $95,000." 

The Baltimore Anierican states that there are 250 
lawyers in the United States, some of whom have a 
practice worth from $1,000 to $3,500 per annum. The 
Afro-American's personal property in the United 
States is placed, at a close calculation, at $263,000,000. 
The last census will show^ him to own over $25,000,000 
in church property, and it is safe to place his posses- 
sions in colleges, universities, seminaries, and private 
schools at $5,000,000, making- a grand total of $30,- 
000,000 in church and school property. 

The Afro-American is an important industrial fac- 
tor. He has learned that the substantial prosperity of 
the race does not depend alone upon its distinguished 
statesmen, its eminent jurists, its skillful physiciansv 
or its learned educators, but upon its tradesmen and 
artisans as well, who create capital and secure employ- 
ment to the masses, who produce more visible and 
tangible results of Afro-American skill and genius> 
But a factor is potential in proportion to the intelli- 
gence, wealth, and character which it represents. 
There are three cardinal elements that produce the ma- 
terial wealth of any people — land, labor, and capital 
The Afro- American has a strong (hold upon each. He 
constitutes one-fourth of the labor in the United States, 
He is found in every state engaged in every handicraft 
knowm to manual labor, while in the North the large 
corporations, cotton and woolen mills, shoe factories, 
iron mills, and machine shops close their doors in his 
face and display the placard, ''No Negro need apply." 
Yet there are some places where the barriers are being 
burned bv skilled Afro-American artisans and com- 



The Scourging of a Race. 187 

petent persons of integrity are securing employment 
by the side of their brother in white. The mightiest 
force in the increase of our resources must be along 
the line of labor and capital; of intelligent combina- 
tion, and enlightened co-operation. The Afro-Ameri- 
can must turn over his resources so as to make them 
productive of ipermanent and helpful results, both to 
himself and unborn generations; he must invest wisely 
in all legitimate enterprises, so that his income may 
reproduce a larger ability to venture farther. He must 
ally himself with the business interests of the state or 
city in which he lives and thus impress its monied 
men with his business capacity and sterling character, 
but this must be done in an independent and manly 
way. Education does not destroy the efficiency of 
labor; it does not lift above labor; it is labor, thrift, 
prosperity, while ignorance is poverty, degradation, 
and many times vice and immorality. 

Carlisle says, ''In all true work their is something of 
divineness.'' A great truth is expressed in these words, 
but the Afro-American can never possess this "some- 
thing of divineness" until he rises in the scale of in- 
dustrial intelligence, widen the field of industrial em- 
ployment, and become a closer student of this indus- 
trial problem ; then he will see the value of co-operation 
and make it a part of his racial life. 

We have shown that Afro-American resources con- 
sist in wealth, of men, and material, of orators and 
statesmen; educators, in law, medicine, science, litera- 
ture, music, poetry, and tragedy; in financial corpora- 
tions and industrial enterprises. We have shown him 
to possess character as well as scholarship, integrity, 
and industry ; tact and skill as well as citizenship, and 
to hold w^ith increasing strength to land, labor, and 
capital. 

How far has Christianity a claim upon the re- 
sources? When the priest was consecrated the blood 
of the ram was put upon the right ear, the thumb of 



1 88 The Scourging of a Race. 

the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, to 
indicate that he should come and go, use his hands and 
powers of mind; in short, his entire self in the ser- 
vice of God. 

God has absolute ownership in us. We are not in 
partnership with him, giving him a certain percentage 
and retaining the principle for ourselves. We are per- 
mitted to be trustees of God's property, wihether the 
estate be in character, attainments or material posses- 
sions. We must remember, "The earth is the Lord's 
and the fullness thereof ; the world and they that dwell 
therein.'' 

Christian stewardship is the lesson the present cen- 
tury must learn; Christian stewardship obligating us 
to use whatever is ours, in a way that will best honor 
God and serve in the devdopment of humanity. 



The Scourging of a Race. 189 



The Vacant Tomb. 



Preached on Easter Sundav, at 1 1 n. M., 1591. 



'*He is not here : for he is risen, as he said. Come, see 
the place where the Lord \3iy.''—Malt xxviiiy 6, 

This world has been the scene of many great events 
— events that challenge the admiration of men and 
angels. 

The history of the human race contains a long cata- 
logue of valorous deeds upon the field of social, politi- 
cal, moral, and religious effort. The actors have often 
been men of humble origin and unpretentious attain- 
ments, but they were nevertheless moved by the holiest 
and purest motives. 

Each age, in the silent revolution of time, has had its 
distinctive character. From the time the venerable 
patriarch Abraham stood forth and received the 
divine 'benediction, that multiplied his seed beyond the 
numbers of sand-grains upon the shore of the heaving, 
restless sea, or the innumerable host of burning worlds, 
above our heads, that are set like diamonds in an im- 
perial crown, even to the present age of wonders. 

History records an age when men met in deadly 
combat and ''grim visaged war had smoothed his 
wrinkled front," and the Cyruses and Alexanders, the 
Caesars and Napoleons painted hilltop and valley red ; 
the intellectual period when proud philosophers shed 
their feeble Hght across men's paths and pointed their 
trembling finger to an immortality beyond the grave; 
the age of art, and poetry, and music, when the sculp- 
tor's chisel carved an immortal glory and the painter's 



iQO The Scourging of a Race. 

brush stole the witchery of earth and sea, and the 
fabled muses touched with their mystic finger the 
imagination of ancient bards and evolved a Homer and 
Milton and Shakespeare and Bacon, or the daughter 
of song stole our hearts and drawing us in to her en- 
chanted palace, ''soothed our savage breasts.'' 

But when history records the noblest deeds of men ; 
tinselling them with golden encomium and emblazon- 
ing in letters of living light, the volume will be incom- 
plete without the addition of that sublime event that oc- 
curred on Calvary's height, and which has given char- 
acter to every subsequent age. 

Over eighteen hundred years have rolled into the 
deathless past; the great truths that then shook the 
world are still with redoubled power revolutionizing 
every phrase of man's existence. Christianity was not 
to be a system, short-lived and transitory, but a scheme 
before which time with its devastation and death could 
never produce a successful antagonism. 

It had its origin in a mysterious person, but this 
person was a historic character, in name and doctrine. 
Power to mould and rule individual and national life 
is not found in abstract truth. Truth incarnate, brist- 
ling with life and force, is the real source of power. 
Christ said, ''And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto me." He not only revealed himself as the 
center of attraction in the moral universe, but defined 
the law of spiritual force, both for the individ'jal and 
nation. So Christianity as a system was not to be the 
particular possession of any race or ^people, but to 
establish gospel peace between God and the souls of 
all men from the purest white of Europe to the deepest 
black of Africa ; from the burning Asiatic to the shiver- 
ing Esquimaux; from the turbaned Sultan to the 
tattooed savage ; from the throned monarch to the en- 
slaved in his chain. 

Christianity's mission is to transform humanity. At 
its feet all the earth shall bow. Its doctrine shall en- 



The Scourging of a Race. 191 

girdle the earth and its disciples crowd hilltop as well 
as valley with their legions, who fight under Emanuers 
banner; its songs shall awaken a thousand memories 
of the Messia'h's conquests and make the reverberating 
hills of time tremble with melody — and from hills im- 
mortal shall come re-echoing anthems that earth's 
kingdoms and empires have been entirely subjugated 
and are now the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. 

Our text brings us to consider the resurrection of 
Jesus as a historical fact. 

Tihe resurrection is at once history and prop^hecy. 
There is no escape from death. Disguise it as we 
willy weave poetry around it as we may, it is still death. 
Cover the tomb with flowers and it is still a grave. 

Tihe redeeming feature connected with it, is that it 
opens on the other side and reveals an eternity of 
joy to the believer. This Jesus said and his resurrec- 
tion was a pledge of it. Because he has risen we shall 
rise also. This fact was clothed with ten thousand 
voices. It speaks in all the epistles and is sung in the 
Songs of Zion ; the tombstones caught it and spoke of 
a . ransom from the grave ; all nature in its budding 
trees, its petal-bursting flowers, its singing birds, its 
maiden spring, shaking oflf the snowy robes of winter 
and springing forth from its frigid -womb, blithe and 
^winsome and gay — these are but voices speaking to 
'earth of a more glorious resurrection, the raising of 
the body when the trump of God shall sound. 

Let it be caught in the perfumery of these beautiful 
flowers; rolled heavenward in the strains of the an- 
them and uttered afresh in sermon and scripture. 

But we stand to-day at the vacant tomb of Christ. 
The agonies of Gethsemane are over; the betrayal is 
accomplished; the trial before Pilate and the San- 
hedrin is hurriedly pushed through and the distin- 
guished victim is condemned to die. Clothed in purple 
robe, crowned with thorns that pierced his tender 
temples, burdened wuth the heavy cross, surrounded 



192 The Scourging of a Race, 

by enemies, Jesus wends his way along the rugged 
steep of Calvary leaving Jerusalem, the city that had 
been a stubborn witness against him far behind. 

How he is burdened ! His humanity quivers ! It 
was the heaviest burden mankind had ever been called 
upon to carry. Heavier than the weight of universal 
empire; heavier than holding up the pillars of the 
universe; so heavy that a boundless creation would 
have sunk into endless perdition under its ponderous 
weight; so heavy that — 

"He sunk beneath our heavy woes 
To raise us to his throne, 
And thus the Sovereign of the skies 
Stooped down to wretchedness and dust 
That guihy men might rise/' 

A motley crowd follow. All Jerusalem poured forth 
its thronging multitudes ; the hated gentile ; the self- 
righteous pharisee; the self-indulgent Sadducee, the 
plundering publican and the imperial-robed governor, 
all mingled, forgetting their differences in the eager- 
ness to murder the Son of God. 

He dies and tenderly is laid away in the tomb. 
Every precaution is taken to keep him secure in the 
grave. A huge stone is rolled before the sepulchre, 
sealed with the Roman signet; the Roman soldiery 
are stationed there to guard the place, but he breaks 
the sepulchral bands and steps forth a risen Lord. 
He is risen, the empty tomb proclaims it ; the doors of 
the grave are unbarred and the once emtombed Jesus 
stepped forth. 

Early in the morning, ere the sun had entirely 
lifted the black mantle of night from off the moun- 
tain height, trembling, eager and earnest women, won- 
dering who shall roll away the stone, bearing spices, 
come to the tomb, but find the occupant gone. 

Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is 
not here, he is risen. 



The Scourging of a Race, 193 

Tihey hasten to the apostles, the apostles hurry to 
the tomb, but it is empty. John outran Peter, but 
Peter outdared Jdhn. John stopped at the sepulchre, 
but Peter went in and was convinoed. He is risen 
from the dead, let earth and heaven give witness. 

Tihe rising God forsook the tomb ; left behind every 
evidence that he had gone and subsequently showed 
himself to others that they too might become the liv- 
ing witnesses of the power of the resurrection. 

'He appeared to Mary Magdalene; to the women 
returning from the sepulchre ; to Simon Peter ; to two 
disciples on their way to Emmaus; to the apostles 
assembled in the evening in the upper chamber; 
these on the day of his resurrection. To the apostles, 
Thomas being present^ eight days after the resurrec- 
tion ; to the apostles and disciples on the Sea of Galli- 
lee ; to the eleven and others, in Gallilee, when he had 
appointed to meet them; to the apostles, collectively, 
immediately before his ascension. 

How careful 'he was to preserve the record, step by 
step, leaf by leaf, chapter by chapter, until, volume 
complete, when he ascended, challenged the world, dis- 
prove, announcing, ''I will come again.'' 

The resurrection as a spiritual force. 

Stripped of historical connection, has this incon- 
trovertable fact any spiritual power ? 

The apostles saw 'him after the resurrection morn 
without knowing him, but the churc'h to-day knows 
him without seeing. 

Now, how comes this knowledge without sight, if 
there is not a hidden and secret power in the resur- 
rection ? 

"If Christ ibe not risen,'' says the apostle, to the Gen- 
tiles, '%en is your preaching vain and our faith is 
vain ; we are yet in our sins." 

Hence this iresurrection of Christ becomes the foun- 
dation of the Christian system; all is naught, unless 
Christ be risen. Establish this fact and you place your 
12 



194 "The Scourging of a Race. 

faith upon a foundation as solid as the granite of the 
everlasting hills. 

Christ said to the scoffing Jews, "If ye destroy this 
temple in three days I will raise it again." 

His eternal veracity was then and is now the se- 
curity that men have for a resurrection, just as He 
said He would rise and did, so shall He raise from 
the confines of the silent city every body that has ever 
helped to swell its ghastly population. 

The resurrection is a spiritual power in the life 
of every believer in Christ. 

It speaks to us in no uncertain tones ; it comes with 
the voice of authority saying: ''O man of God, you 
shall rise again." 

It ^^^hispers in the ears of the afflicted who gradu- 
ally sees himself wasting by disease, saying to him, 
you shall soon be clothed in immortal beauty, beyond 
the withering touch of fever and icy hold of death. 

The voice of Omnipotence says, "I will raise him 
up at the last day." It tells us, ''Now is Christ risen 
from the dead and become the first fruits of them that 
slept." 

And Jesus in conversation at Bethany, in order to 
quiet all the fears of his disciples said, '*If you doubt, 
if you tremble before this truth, "I am the resurrection 
and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and be- 
lieveth in me shall never die." 

How true! Heaven recognized His resurrecting 
headship. If we could have pierced with human sight 
the sacred penetralia of eternity a glorious vision would 
have been presented. 

Legion ranks of angels, clothed in shining garments, 
bowed more anxiously before the throne than ever; 
chariots rolled up with milk-white prancing horses, 
fresh from heaven's livery, waiting for the order to 
start to earth. For says the poet : 



The Scourging of a Race, 195 

"They brought his chariot from above 

And bore him to his throne ; 
Clapped their triumphant wings and cried, 

'The glorious work is done.' 

"And the rising God forsakes the tomb ; 

Up to his father's courts he flies ; 
Cherubic legions guard hi-m home, 

And shout him welcome to the skies." 

As the legions muster, Gabriel blasts his trumpet 
and the angelic cohorts move. They pass by patriarch 
and prophet, apostle, martyr and saint, and when the 
rumbling of their chariots die, silence reigns in 
heaven. 

Suddenly the train descends. They reach the tomb 
and roll away the stone, the conquering King arises 
and the armies of heaven sing : 

"Live forever, glorious King, 
Born to redeem and strong to save ; 

Then ask, O Death, where is thy sting? 
And where thy victory, boasting Grave? 

"Break off your tears, ye saints, and tell 
How high our great deliverer reigns ; 

Sing how he spoiled the hosts of 'hell. 
And led the monster Death in chains." 



196 The Scourging of a Race, 



The Negro in War and 
Peace. 



Preached Before O. P. Morton and Charles Sumner Posts, 
G. A. P., of Washington, D. C, nav 30, 1559. 



"Not by migtht, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the 
L/ord." — Zech. iv, 6. 

Three times in the history of the American Repub- 
lic has ''grim visaged war," stalked across her broad 
and fertile fields ; depopuilated her proud cities ; spread 
devastation and death in its pathway and painted hill 
and vale in crimson hue. 

T'he statesman and orator have reproduced the 
scenes of these bloody struggles, in rounded periods, 
melting cadences and balanced sentences; they have 
written the valorous deeds of the American soldier 
upon the hearts of posterity in immortal characters. 

Year after year, with measured tread and mufifled 
drum they have approached the city of the dead, where 
all that is mortal remains of those who Ihave pitched 
their tents upon the unbounded fields of the glory 
land; gathering ''knots and garfands gay" to place 
upon the graves that hold the ashes of the nation's 
dead. 

Time has inaudibly and noselessly rolled its courses, 
since the first page was written in the volume of 
American wars. Historians have vied with each other 
in searching among the musty archives of the nations, 
for acts of patriotism and deeds of valor with which 



The Scourging of a Race. 197 

to clothe the imemory of the white soldier in the robes 
of immortality. 

The poets have invoked the aid of the fabled muses, 
that they might ascend the mystic heigihts of eloquence 
and set to poetic music their deeds of daring. 

Tihe historian, in his wide and extensive ramblings ; 
the poet, in his highest flights ; the philosopher, in his 
most logical conclusions, have all passed by, unnoticed 
and unknown, a factor, which, if not conspicuous, was 
none the less potent, certainly of equal power with 
all the rest, that brought success to our armies in 1775, 
1812, and 1861 — namely: 

The American Negro and the part he played in the 
three great wars. 

Colonel Wilson in his ''Black Phalanx'' says : ''Of the 
three hundred thousand troops in the Revolutionary 
War it has been estimated that 5,000 were colored, 
and these came principally from the North, whose 
colored population at that time was about 50,000, while 
the Southern colonies contained about 300,000. The 
Northern colonies furnished 249,503 and the South- 
ern colonies 147,940 soldiers, though the \Vhole popu- 
lation of either section was within a few hundred of 
being equal. 

The love of liberty was no less strong with the 
Southern than with the Northern colored man. At 
the North he gained ihis liberty by entering the Amer- 
ican army, at the South by entering the British army, 
which was increased by more than 15,000 colored 
men. Jefferson says : "30,000 negroes went to the 
British army." 

Now had the colored men in the South possessed 
the same opportunity to join the American army as 
those in the North the number of colored men in the 
Revolutionary War would have been considerably 
larger. 

Of the services of the little band, scattered as they 
were throughout the army, two or three in a company 



198 The Scourging of a Race, 

composed of whites; a squad in a regiment, a few 
companies with an army, it was impossible for their 
record to be distinct from the organizations to which 
they were attached. 

Enough has been culled from the history of that 
conflict to show that they 'bore a brave part in the 
struggle which wrestled the colonies from the con- 
trol of the British government and won for themselves 
and offspring, freedom, whidh many had never en- 
joyed. 

The first victim offered upon the altar in this war 
was a colored man — the Negro patriot, hero, and 
martyr, Crispus Attucks. 

While all seemed puzzled as to the course to be 
pursued in driving back the invading Britishers, At- 
tucks rushed forward, shouting, ''Attack the main 
guard ; strike at the root.'' The invaders opened fire 
and Attucks was the first to fall. Thus the struggle 
for liberty against oppression was sanctified by the 
blood of a Negro and the revolutionary tide set in mo- 
tion until it swept before it every vestige of British 
tyranny and gave to the world a free and independent 
people. 

In the war of 1812, which was mainly carried on 
upon water the negro again comes to the front. When 
Captain Perry received a squadron of men composed 
largely of negroes he expressed his indignation and 
dissatisfaction and characterized them as a "Motley 
crowd or set of blacks, soldiers and boys," Whereupon 
Commander Chauncey answered him as follows: ''I 
have yet to learn that the color of the skin or the cut 
and trimmings of the coat, can affect a man's qualifica- 
tions for usefulness. I have nearly fifty blacks on board 
this ship and many of them are among my 'best men." 

The battle of Lake Erie, in which these same black 
men fought, was the most important naval engagement 
fought and the Negro under a black skin displayed as 
much patriotism as the Caucasian under a white. 



The Scourging of a Race, 199 

But let us oome to 1861 — the Civil War — ^^the war 
that badgered the nation; plotted treason; fired the 
signal shot at Sumpter and drenched the country in 
the blood of 500,000 men; expended $3,000,000,000 
and strained the nation's nerves to their utmost ten- 
sion. 

Nothing but truth is immortal. The good that men 
do lives after the dissolution of their 'bodies. 

"The stars shall fade away, 

The sun himself grow dim with age, 

And nature sink in years, 

But ''truth" shall flourish in imimortal youth, 

Unhurt amid the war of elements, 

The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds!" 

The monuments we erect to the mighty dead must 
lose their beauty, under the transforming hand of 
time. A swift and remorseless civilization has sup- 
planted the venerated shrines of saints and heroes. 

Xerxes wept at the thought, that magnificent and 
stupendous as his army was, one hundred years would 
not spare a man. 

But no good action is ever lost. It lives — lives on 
when all mankind have taken their chambers in the 
silent halls of death ; for says inspiration,'' ''They rest 
from their labors and their -works do follow them.'' 

Those who fell amidst the din of embattled arms, 
robed in the smoke of conflict and immersed in human 
blood, are liviiig grander lives to-day in the memory 
of all good men than they could had their names 
'been inscribed in letters of living lig'ht among those 
of earth's mightiest statesmen and philosophers. 

The causes which led to the civil war, reach beyond 
and antedate the American State. American slavery 
had its birth simultaneously with the landing of the 
Mayflower. In the language of Colonel Williams, the 
Negro soldier and historian : 

''As a blessing and a curse they walked through this 



200 The Scourging of a Race, 

land of promise in the West. Freedom, as a fair young 
lady with lithe limbs, gladsome face and flowing 
tresses, has heen espied in her beneficient march from 
the golden sands of the Pacific to the orange and palm 
of Florida. 

We have seen her coming over the brow of ma- 
jestic mountains through the golden harvests of the 
West ; through the sugar cane and rice, with her locks 
immersed in the dew of the mountain and her gar- 
ments perfumed with the lily of the valley. 

But as we have watched her in the glorious march, 
we have discerned the dark spectre, slavery, at her 
side, with his lean lank arms locked in hers and wher- 
ever his shadow has fallen there has been degradation 
and death. 

From Jamestown and Plymouth Rock they began 
their companionship, which soon ripened into a 
friendship, based upon the relations of capital and 
trade. But fair freedom soon found out that her 
health and life were imperiled by this association. 
After a fierce and long struggle, freedom was enabled 
to divorce herself from slavery, and, with disheveled 
locks, bleeding limbs, pale cheek, languid eye, and 
aching heart, she is to-day conscious of the imminent 
danger in which she placed herself and votaries, when, 
stepping from the deck of the Mayflower, she without 
meditation accepted the wooings of the inhuman Cava- 
lier of Jamestown. Such is the story of freedom and 
slavery." 

The causes of the war extended far back into the 
lives of the American colonies. Constitutional amend- 
ments dimmed our national glory for three-fourths of 
a century. As early as 1780 slavery had disappeared 
in Massachusetts, and was gradually dying in all the 
New England States, and the representatives of the 
people in the constitutional convention spoke against 
it, though by their votes they legalized it as one of the 
most startling relics of barbarism. 



The Scourging of a Race, 201 

Tihe admission of the slave states into the union; 
the constitutional guarantee to protect slave property 
— the basis of southern congressional representation — 
reduced the Declaration of Independence to an ab- 
surdity, made the non-importation act a lie and stulti- 
fied the noble acts and deeds of the revolutionary 
fathers. 

Tihe price of the union in 1789 was the surrender 
of the clear, honest conviction that slavery was wrong; 
the price of the union in 1861-65 was 500,000 lives, 
$3,000,000,000 and untold misery and woe. 

Moral right is omnipotent, and no man or govern- 
ment of men can resist it. The voice of Lundy, 
Garrison, Phillips and Douglass was the voice of 
God, through these humble instrumentalities crying 
aloud against the evil of slavery. 

To no man or set of men belongs the credit of this 
great moral awakening. ''Not by might, nor by power, 
but by my spirit, saith the Lord.'' 

God had by a wise unfolding of his purposes been 
preparing the way for the liberation of the slaves. He 
makes no mistakes; with him there is no conjecture; 
no accident ; no chance. 

In his inscrutable wisdom he had decided that the 
slave, who yesterday swung the scythe should to-day 
wield the sword, while his former master fled before 
him. He has ordained that the hand which drove 
the oxen and mule should drive the pen in office and 
counting room. 

That there should be a grand transformation scene. 
From slavery to freedom; ignorance to intelligence; 
poverty to wealth ; moral and intellectual nonentity to 
place and power among the nations of the earth. He 
should be merged into the body politic of the American 
people and thus become a part of the grandest nation 
on the face of the earth. 

It has no parallel in history ! The greatest nation 
on earth is America ; great in its wide and varied natu- 



202 The Scourging of a Race, 

ral resources; its sweeping rivers, creeping majesti- 
cally and silently to their outlets ; in its broad lakes, 
bearing upon their restless bosoms the white-winged 
messengers of commerce ; in its towering mountains, 
whose rugged peaks bathe their hoary heads in the 
clouds; its fertile valleys, in whose productive soil 
wave the golden wheat, the white-capped cotton, or 
the nutritious rice; great in its extensive plains, invit- 
ing the pasture of rich blooded stock and extending 
its freedom to the prancing and fiery steed; in its 
multitudinous grades of mineral, whose veins traverse 
circuitous routes in subterranean chambers. 

Great in intelectual giants ; producing scholars, 
scientists, artists, philosophers, who in their ramb- 
lings have discovered the secrets of the most distant 
stars, vanquished time and space, taught the vapors 
to toil, the lightning to speak, and the winds to wor- 
ship; stolen the witchery of earth and sky and gath- 
ered them into her enchanted chambers, and by books 
have echoed the crash of revolutions and the silent 
thunders of thought. But with all her greatness she 
must ever keep in mind the fact, ''That righteousness 
exalteth a nation and sin is a reproach to any people." 

The white soldier will be praised because he de- 
fended his liberty ; the Negro soldier will be praised, 
'because, having no liberty, he purchased it by the 
sword in the great struggle of justice against op- 
pression. 

The colored soldier unlocked the ponderous doors 
of his own prison-house and set free 4,000,000 of his 
brethren, and out of this crude material built a new 
civilization — this is the Negro's place in history. 

His introduction into the army under the probation 
of those who believed him a coward. The negro 
soldier's long and weary marches; his fierce and 
bloody struggles ; and his demonstration to all 
worlds and times that underneath a black skin there 
rested the fires of patriotism, only waiting an oppor- 



The Scourging of a Race, 203 

tunity to burst its boundaries and strike for liberty 
and law. 

"And there came the nameless dead — the men 
Who perished in fever swamp and fen ; 
The slowly starved of the prison pen, 

And, marching beside the others. 
Came the dusky martyrs of Pillow's fight, 
With limbs enfranchised and bearing bright, 
I thought — perhaps 'twas the pale moonlight, 

They looked as white as their brothers." 

'The years have come and gone, stretching their 
busy lengths between loathsome prisons and deadly 
conflicts ; but across this space come the groans of the 
tortured and the agonies of the dying the results of 
which have given to the Negro race an undying place 
in the history of this republic; their blood speaks to 
us to-day. Speaks of their valor; speaks of their 
struggles; speaks of their race pride and devotion to 
right. 

The Negro's experience as a soldier settled forever 
the question as to his courage and endurance. These 
are two of the most important elements in the rise 
of a people. Daniel O'Connor said to Ireland, "Hered- 
itary bondsmen, know ye not that he who would him- 
self be free must first strike the blow." The Negro- 
American anticipated O'Connor when he arose and 
caused the nation to tremble like a reed shaken by 
a mighty wind. 

Not by might, nor by power was this mighty revolu- 
tion accomplished, but by the hand of 'him who weigh- 
eth the towering heights in scales, and the hills in a 
balance. 

By him in whose sight the nations of the earth, with 
all their wealth of genius are as nothing. Surely we 
see in the nation's triumph the justice of God and the 
utter folly and feebleness of human government, and 
know by bitter experience that the sins of nations, as 
well as individuals, will surely find them out. 



204 The Scourging of a Race, 

And now, in peace, what must be our duty ? We owe 
it to those who paid their Hves as the price of our 
liberty, to ever keep their memory fresh in the minds 
of the present generation. 

The Negro as a citizen has greater obstacles to sur- 
mount than the Negro soldier. The greatest problem 
of the age remains unsolved. If we rise at all it must 
be by our own merit. 

Let us be sober, intelligent and industrious; giving 
less attention to pleasure and folly; paying strict at- 
tention to the laws of economy ; securing to ourselves 
and children property and education, and thus become 
a producer rather than a consumer. 

Let us live not for ourselves alone, but for all coming 
time. 



The Scourging of a Race, 205 



Human Character. Its Sure 
roundation. 



liAtroductorv Sermon at the Virginia Baptist State Converv- 
tlon, 1554, Norfolk, Va. 



"And it fell nat; for it was founded upon a rock." — Matt, 
vii, 25. 

Two men decide to build a house ; the one for solid 
comfort and permanence; the other, wishing to save 
money and time, regardless of the advice of experienced 
builders, and friends well acquainted with the sudden 
wind-storms, destructive rain, and mad-rush of the 
angry waters, as they burst over all barriers, sought a 
foundation upon the sand. 

High on a rock the first named marked his plan; 
he scanned his deep foundation closely. He knew that 
wide, wasting storms might arise, and to be securely 
founded, his building must stand upon a solid base. The 
work is commenced; the workmen are instructed to 
make haste slowly, for this building must stand the 
wreck of time and remain when its desolating hand has 
destroyed the firmest foundations of human policy and 
blasted the brightest glories of human fame. 

The building irises until its towers point heaven- 
ward. With joy he sees the beauteous fabric furnished 
and completed ; he seeks its walls to dwell in peace and 
safety, for it is founded on a rock. 



2o6 The Scourging of a Race. 

"But soon dark clouds overspread the troubled sky, 
And soon is heard the voice of tempest high; 
Deep rolls the thunder, rains in torrents pour, 
And floods tumultuous beat with deafening roar. - 
Floods, rain nor thunder nor rude tempest shock 
Can harm the house — 'tis founded on a rock. 

"Not so the simpleton, who built on sand. 
And wrought his labors with penurious hand; 
Midst howling tempest and loud thunder roar, 
His house — it vanished and was seen no more." 

In the text we have a striking and impressive pic- 
ture of two classes of individuals, of whom the world 
is full. The first is the son of wisdom, who, in build- 
ing a character, founds it upon the ''Rock of Ages," to 
the end, that it may survive the wreck of matter and 
the crush of worlds. The other is called foolish, be- 
cause, allured by the false hopes which this world holds 
out to men, he builds his character upon the sandy- 
foundation of worldly pleasure. 

The contrast between the two characters presented 
in the parable is very beautiful. The strength of the 
one becomes conspicuous on account of the weakness 
of the other. It was a frequent custom of Christ as a 
preacher to teach by means of contrast and thus fasten 
the truth more securely upon the minds of his audi- 
ences. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the 
sower, the publican and the pharisee are illustrations 
of this method of divine instruction. 

We desire Jo discuss at this hour the subject of 
human character and its sure foundation. That we 
may enter into a closer sympathy with what may 
follow, let us notice, first, the general law that 

AI.I, MKN ARE BUII.DE;RS. 

We are born with certain tendencies — tendencies 
that are the natural results of a depraved nature; ten- 
dencies susceptible of development and cultivation — 
but to properly cultivate them is a life work; it com- 



The Scoicrging of a Race, 207 

niences with the rockings of the cradle and ends at the 
grave. 

Let us examine the internal structure of man; ana- 
lyze his frame-work ; peep into his physical nature, 
and the fact must be conceded that he in every w^ay is 
fitted to be a builder. 

Thought is but a power formative in all its activities, 
reason a constructive force, and imagination a creative 
faculty ; not only the unseen and invisible endowments, 
but the outer physical appearances are formed and 
fitted for intelligent and creative action. 

Behold the hand, mark its wonderful adaptedness to 
operations, creative and fashioning. It can tear down 
and demolish; it can build up and beautify. But in 
these respects it is only the agent of the soul, and be- 
cause of the capabilities and susceptibilities in man to 
imagine, to reason and to wiH, the great master builder 
has put within his reach those instrumentalities and 
agencies which are useful in securing this end. 

We can only attain the highest point in the develop- 
ment of human character as we bring it in conformity 
with God's Word ; for there can be no true and perma- 
nent character unless it be founded on true and per- 
manent pr-inciples ; and these principles for the regula- 
tion of human action must not be based on moral law 
alone, nor the vain speculations of philosophy, but on 
the will of God as revealed to man — this is the highest 
law of human action. By this we must stand or fall ; 
upon this all creeds and opinions must be based ; it is 
the foundation of all law. ''To the law and to the testi- 
mony if they speak not according to his word, it is be- 
cause there is no light in them.'' 

The building of character is slow, because it takes 
hold of the eternities — eternity of the past and the 
eternity of the future — but the destruction of character 
is the work of a moment. 

Character is human nature in its best form, it is 
moral order individualized. Men of character are not 



2o8 The Scourging of a Race. 

only the conscience of society, -but in every well gov- 
erned state they are its best motive power, for it is 
moral qualities in the main that rule the world. 

Washington in his farewell address says: ''Of all 
the dispositions and habits which lead to political pros- 
perity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. 
In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism 
who should labor to subvert these great pillars of 
human beings — ^^the firmest of props — of the duties of 
men and citizens. Where is the security for property, for 
reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation 
deserts the oaths which are the instruments of investi- 
gation in the courts of justice? And let us with cau- 
tion indulge the supposition that morality can be main- 
tained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to 
the influence of refi-ned education on minds of pecu- 
liar structure, reason and experience both forbid us 
to expect that national -morality can prevail in exclu- 
sion of religious principles.'' 

Even in war, Napolean said : ''The moral is to the 
physioal as ten is to one." 

The strength, the industry, and the civilization of 
nations, all depend upon individual character, and the 
very foundation of civil security rests upon it. Laws 
and institutions are but its legitimate outgrowth, and 
in the just balance of nature, individuals, nations, and 
races will obtain just so much as they deserve and no 
more. As surely as effect finds its cause, so surely 
does quality of character amongst a people produce 
the best and highest results. 

In the language of the eminent and scholarly Dr. 
Crummell, who sets forth in a sermon preached by him 
Thanksgiving Day, 1875, on the great need of the 
colored race in America. "Character is the grand ef- 
fective instrument, which we are to use for the de- 
struction of caste; character in its broad, deep, wide 
and high significance; character as evidenced in high 
moral and intellectual attainments ; as significant of 



The Scourgi7ig of a Race. 209 

general probity, honesty and self-restraint; as inclu- 
sive of inward might and power; as comprehending 
the attainments of culture, refinement and enlighten- 
ment, comprising the substantial results of thought, 
economy and enterprise, and as involving the force of 
combined energies and enlightened co-operation. Only 
secure a high commanding and masterly character, 
and then all the problems of caste, all the enigmas of 
prejudice, all unreasonable and unreasoning repul- 
sion will be settled forever." 

We are all building, whether in ministry or laity. 
We gather the material for the building from the 
quarry of thought, hew it into either noble or ignoble 
action, and give proper position to it in the imper- 
ishable building. ''As a man thinketh so is he.'' 

The foundation is largely laid in youth, then fol- 
lows the work of erecting the superstructure. Silently 
we go about this work, each day finding us crystalizing 
some thought into action, embodying some action into 
character. The habits we form, the company we keep, 
the customs surrounding us, all tend to fix the character 
as perfect and symmetrical, or imperfect and irregular. 

The most valuable buildings are not erected in a day. 
That costly and magnificent temple erected by Solo- 
mon, that surpassed all eastern temples of royalty in 
its bold architecture and inestimable material, was 
over seven years in building ; and so far did the latter 
house surpass that of the former that it required forty- 
six years to rebuild it. 

So the character that challenges the admiration of 
the world will take every moment of life, spent in 
'humble dependence on God for its successful forma- 
tion. 

In building character we are not left without a 
model, for we have it given to us in the life and death 
of Jesus. His was a character perfect and symmetri- 
cal, one of which the world was not worthy. He was 
13 



2IO The Scourging of a Race, 

the purest of the pure, the greatest of all the earth; 
''the fairest among ten thousand and altogether lovely." 

Do men seek perfection of character? Let them find 
it in the victim of Calvary ; he is the absolute standard 
of all character. 

Rosseau, the infidel, said : "If the life and death of 
Socrates was that of an angel, the life and death 6i 
Jesus was that of a God." 

Judas, a man who lived and sojourned with him, 
had every opportunity to watch his private life, and 
mark imperfections, if any, exclaimed: "I have be- 
trayed innocent blood ;" and his enemies are unanimous 
in declaring him a good man, the Ideal Character. 
Hence if it is the faultless model we want, our desires 
meet in Jesus. 

ALL BUILDERS HAVE A CHOICE 01^' FOUNDATIONS. 

''Behold, I set before you two ways ; the way of life 
and the way of death." Now there comes a time when 
man finds himself in the forks of the road. He cannot 
walk in both; the time has come for him to choose 
which path he will take. He is abundantly capable of 
making such a choice; created a free agent, he can 
distinguish between right and wrong — and as he 
stands undecided, Jehovah's voice is heard in his soul, 
sounding in tones more awful and stirring than were 
the prophets words on Mt. Carmel. "How long halt 
ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow 
him, and if Baal, follow him." Sometimes men say: 
"I will follow neither," but they forget that to be neu- 
tral in religion is impossible. "He that is not for me 
is against me." When one great nation rises in deadly 
combat against another, we may take a neutral stand, 
assume a middle ground, but in the combat raging be- 
tween the kingdoms of light and darkness, there is 
no middle ground. You cannot serve God and Mam- 
mon. 

How can we gain a knowledge of the merits or de- 



The Scourging of a Race, 211 

merits of the one or the other? Christ gave a sure 
rule when he said, ''Search the Scriptures, for in them 
ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are they which 
testify of me/' 

If you would know how to accept Jesus, listen to 
those consolinig words in John : ''For God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life/' If you would be sure of acceptance, 
hear him say : "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no 
wise cast out/' If you have fears as to the security 
of the soul hear him say: "I give unto them eternal 
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man 
pluck them out of my hand; my father which gave 
them me is greater than all, and no man is able to 
pluck them out of my father's hand/' Hence the 
christian sings : 

''When tossed upon the billows, afar from every land, 
ril look to him who holds me in the hollow of his hand. 

"Though rayless be my pathway, by night the heavens span, 
ril trust in him who holds me in the hollow of his hand. 

"Though raging wind may drive me, a wreck upon the strand, 
ril cling to him who holds me in the hollow of his hand. 

"Thoug'h deaden sails hang o'er me, all hastening wind in vain, 
I'll wait on him who holds me in the hollow of his hand. 

"When by the swelling Jordan, my feet in sinking sand, 
I'll cry to him who holds me in the hollow of his hand. 

"Ah ! there is bliss in walking^ even through a desert land, 
In knowing that he holds me in the hollow of his hand." 

If you doubt the foundation, listen to the wofd — 
"Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a 
tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation/' 

Human experience teaches us the folly of building 
on the rotten foundation which Satan offers. Hear 
the rich man, who lifted up his eyes in hell where a 



212 The Scourging of a Race, 

tonmenting conscience always makes more miserable, 
and the cries of the lost add terror to terror. ''Chained 
in adamantine chains and penal fires/' he cries, ''Send 
Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, 
and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame/^ 
Hear Judas, wriggling under the lash of an abused 
conscience. — "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed in- 
nocent blood." Hear the penitent Jews on the Day of 
Pentecost, pricked to the heart they cry, "What shall 
we do?'' Hear the trembling jailer — "What must I 
do to be saved?" And add to this Hst of disappointed 
souls, who have depended upon a foundation as rotten 
as it is old, the dying sinner who only cries on his ex- 
piring breath, "Too late ! too late !" 

O ! if the lost could burst the chains that bind them 
to an eternity of misery and pain, they would come to 
earth and spend time and talent in warning men and 
women to "Flee the wrath to come." 

ALL FOUNDATIONS MUST BE TRIKD. 

This man built his house on a rock, and there were 
three elements that tried its foundation — the beating 
rain from above; the swelling flood from below; and 
the sweeping wind from across. 

So Christianity has been tried. The rains of public 
sentiment, in all ages, have descended in torrents upon 
it; the floods of dissension and error, born in the con- 
fines of hell, and imbued with the spirit of demons, 
have threatened to undermine this foundation and 
relegate it forever to the shades of oblivion. The 
sweeping hurricanes of persecution have fallen against 
it until it has bowed as the oak, before a mighty wind, 
and sent its roots deeper and deeper with every oppos- 
ing struggle. Age after age it has stood, and age after 
age it will remain the same — unworn by the lapse of 
time, unchanged by the crumbling down of this crea- 
tion and the passing away of earthly scenes, rising 



The Scourging of a Race, 213 

above and outliving the pomp and pride and glory 
of the noblest empires of earth. 

Millions in every age have rested upon this founda- 
tion, and have never been disappointed. Upon this 
rock for nearly six thousand years God's saints have 
built their hopes. Cain stood upon it and found accep- 
tance with God ; Abraham beheld it b}^ faith and was 
made the heir of the riches of divine grace; Jacob 
caught and wrestled with it, through the silent watches 
of the night until the gray tints of the new born day 
had kissed the tops of the mountains and wrapt hill 
and vale in their silvery mantle ; Daniel, that eminent 
type of noble Christian manhood, stood upon this foun- 
dation, am-idst the darkness and the danger of the 
lion's den ; prophets, apostles, martyrs and saints 
have sung its virtues from the flames of persecution 
and from the regions of death. 

With undying devotion to its truth, they have bap- 
tized the earth in human blood, until their enemies 
were forced to admit that the ''blood of the martyrs 
is the seed of the church.'' 

Men have tried other foundations and failed. They 
have labored up the steeps o'f logic, explored the realms 
of philosophy, bowed at the shrine of science, sat at 
the feet of infidelity, entreated the assistance of scep- 
ticism in search of a more excellent way to find peace 
with God; but the result has always been disappoint- 
ment, sorrow and hopeless despair. 

The religion of Christ ofifers to mankind the only 
sure and unchanging foundation of human character; 
a foundation that defies the attacks of every enemy, 
that outlives thrones and powers, that outshines the 
blazing splendor of a noon-day sun ; a foundation that 
shall stand when stars shall fade away, that clothes 
itself in immortal youth when all nature sinks in years. - 

Christianity must conquer the world ; it has not ex-- 
hausted itself ; its work is only begun ; it is not an old 
warrior, battle scarred and weary, rehearsing its oft 



214 "^^^^ Scourging of a Race, 

repeated story of victories in the past ; it is the young, 
vigorous, powerful, invincible soldier, adding victory 
to victory in every step of its onward march. It must 
step into every kingdom of earth, sit down on earthly 
thrones, disrobe the monarch of his mantle of self- 
righteousness, uncrown him of his wicked desire to 
gain earthly pomp and power, and clothe him with 
the same mind that Christ had. 

It must make popes tremble and toss upon their 
midnight beds, conquerors turn pale as they see, or 
think they see their own achievements traced along 
its mysterious page, and their own bloody deeds an- 
ticipated, for 

"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run; 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more. 

"For him shall endless prayer be made, 
And endless praises crown his head ; 
His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise 
With every morning sacrifice." 

''It fell not, for it was founded upon a rock, 'The 
Rook of Ages.' " 

A character thus built, finds acceptance with God. 
and is made the happy recipient of that divine plaudit 
which shall be given to those who endure faithful to the 
end. 



The Scourging of a Race, 215 



The Unspeakable Gift. 



Preached at Northern Virginia Baptist TXssociatlon, Charles- 
ton, Va., 1559. 



"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." — // Cor, 
ix, 15. 

Leading to an Austrian city there is a bridge, in the 
parapets of which are twelve statues of Christ. 

One s-tatue represents him as the Sower, another as 
the Shepherd, another as the Carpenter, and another 
as the Physician. Others points to him as the repre- 
sentative of other characters, such as Pilot, Prophet, 
Priest and King. The simple minded country people, 
coming into the city in the early morning with the 
produce for market, pause and pray before Christ, the 
Sower. A little later the artisan on his way to his 
workshop, worships Christ, the Carpenter. Later still, 
when the sun has scattered the mists of the morning 
and flooded the earth with his supernal splendors, the 
invalid, creeping from the city to breathe the bracing 
air so fresh in the country, presents his morning 
prayers to Christ, the Physician. Doubtless there is 
mu'ch of superstition in this picture, but it also ex- 
presses a great truth. Each worships the Chris-t 
nearest to himself; the Christ who best interprets his 
own thoughts and feelings or supplies his peculiar 
wants. 

It is the matchless glory of Christ that he can be 
everything to everybody; that no pihase of humanity 
can be so extensive in its needs, so hopeless in its de- 
pravity, so desperate in its sinful practice, or so hard- 



2i6 The Scourging of a Race, 

ened in vice, or sunk into the depths of immorality, 
that Christ as a Savior can not reach. 

It was this one idea that so thoroughly caCptivated 
the whole being of the peerless apostle to the Gentiles ; 
it charmed Ihis imagination, controlled his intellect, and 
constrained his heart. 

There was not in all the history of the human race, 
such a life to Paul. It was so overwhelmingly sub- 
lime, that after sitting and studying its ineffable 
benefits to poor fallen humanity the apostle gives 
an honest heartburst of gratitude to God for this ''un- 
speakable gift." 

The highest point of human greatness that men ever 
attain is when they bow at the feet of Jesus, and de- 
clare eternal allegiance to his cross, for the gospel he 
represents is as old as eternity and as new as the latest 
sunbeam which kissed the morning flower. 

It brings the smoking ruins of Eden and the groan- 
ing heights of Calvary together, and from the heaven 
appointed union gives birth to the Child Christ Jesus, 
who must fill the whole earth with his glory. 

When Jesus announced the idea of a universal re- 
ligion, he took the foremost place among the world's 
greatest thinkers. He became the world's greatest 
benefactor. The proudest philosophers of Greece and 
Rome, in their loftiest flights, never had such a 
thought. 

The ancients poets, forgot to invoke the aid of the 
gods, that they might rise to such a height and justify 
these ways of God to men. Paul calls Christ the ''un- 
speakable gift." The present of Jehovah to a dying 
world. "For God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

We 'Call your attention to — 

I. The gifts of men. 

They are manifold and valuable. When the Queen 
of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she journeyed 



The Scourging of a Race, 217 

to Jerusalem, with a great company and camels, that 
brought spices and gold in abundance and precious 
stones. She gave the king one hundred and twenty 
talents of gold, and spices of great abundance with 
precious stones. 

The gold she gave is estimated at £657,000, in our 
currency amounting to ($3,166,740), three million, one 
hundred and sixty-six thousand, seven hundred and 
forty dollars, besides the precious spices and stones. 

In return, Solomon gave to her whatever she asked, 
and many valuable presents out of his own liberality. 
When the wise men visited the new-born babe of Beth- 
lehem's manger, they brought gifts of gold, frankin- 
cense and myrrh. 

It was customary among the ancients, when one king 
visited another to make a gift, very precious, either 
of gold, or some other costly commodity. 

This was done to show^ appreciation or signify the 
high place one nation held in the estimation of another. 

Our own country has received many valuable gifts 
from foreign powers. General Grant received many 
gifts from foreign nations and they are kept to show 
the high estimation in which he was held by other na- 
tions, and as a mark of honor by the nation itself. 

Our own citizens have given of the abundance of 
their wealth for the erection of schools of arts and 
sciences, of charitable institutions, and the creation of 
funds, such as the Peabody and Slater, for the promo- 
tion of education among all classes of the citizens of 
this great republic. 

But all these gifts may be estimated. We know what 
they are worth to the country and the cause to which 
they were contributed. 

The apostle in the text had no reference to these 
kind of gifts. "They perish, they depreciate in value, 
they gradually diminish until they are only remem- 
bered as things of the past. 

He refers in the text to another kind of gift, that 



2i8 The Scourging of a Race, 

was so valuable no human intellect could estimate its 
cost; no tongue could tell, no imagination could con- 
ceive, no pen could describe. It was the gift of a Sav- 
ior to a dying and perishing world. 

In the contemplation of this gift, the human heart, 
cries from the depths of gratitude, "Thanks be to 
God for his unspeakable gift." 

Notice — 

2. The gifts of God. 

In the discussion of this part of the subject v^^here 
shall I begin ? Their number is legion ; they are more 
numerous than all the sands of the seashore, multiplied 
by the stars of heaven. We do not ask what has God 
given to us, but what has he not bestowed upon men? 

Take this beautiful fabric of creation, the universe, 
with all its benefits. Is there another planet like ours ; 
the proudest of all, that fell from the creative hand? 

Stand upon some mountain height in early morn, 
when the misty garment is being lifted from mountain 
top and chased through valley by the king of day. See 
the sun stepping from his oriental chamber, in the full 
majesty of his own power, rejoicing as a strong man 
to run a race, gilding with ineffable splendor the whole 
creation, from the tenderest blade of grass to the high- 
est Odk that towers far beyond all other trees of the 
forest. 

Place yourself upon the shore of old ocean ; see her 
restless bosom as it lashes itself into the maddest fury, 
and rolls her storm crest waves, broken and scattered 
at your feet. 

Upon it rides the white winged sea bird, carrying 
to heathen nations the products of civilization and 
thus bringing into intimate touch with the whole family 
of nations the best gifts of God to man. 

Look at man, "the monarch of all he surveys.'' WeM 
may the question be asked: "What is man that thou 
art mindful of him?" 

"What a piece of work is man ! How noble in rea- 



The Scourging of a Race, 219 

son! How inifinite in faculty! In form and moving, 
how express land admirable! In action how Hke an 
angel; in apprehension, how like God!" 

E'merson says, in speaking of Adam: *'He is the 
whole encyclopedia of facts. The creation of a thou- 
sand forests in one acorn, an Egypt, Greece, Rome, 
Gaul, Britain and America lie unfolded already in the 
first man/' 

He is God's gift to a beautiful world ; at once as in- 
strument and an ornament. 

Enriching the world with his toil; delving into its 
hidden and mysterious depths and bringing forth its 
priceless treasures; surprising the secrets of distant 
planets by mounting where science guides; measur- 
ing the earth, weighing the air and stating the tides; 
teaching the vapor to toil, the lightning to speak and 
the winds to worship; instructing the planets in what 
orb to run ; correcting old time, and regulating the sun- 
beams that steal from dizzy heights. 

What a wonderful physical gift is man; not merely 
a beautiful piece of mechanism, without power to move 
from one point to another, without the means of self 
protection. 

He is the master of creation. He walks calmly amidst 
her wildest animals and tames them; he extracts the 
poison from the reptiles, and makes them as harmless 
as playful kittens; he plunges into the jungles of 
heathen life, and lays the corner-stone for proud and 
mighty cities, clearing its forests, uprooting its poison- 
ous weeds and destroying the deadly roots, and then 
invites his fellow to come and dwell where once was 
the habitation of dragons with reeds and rushes, but 
now transformed into a peaceful vale where the lion 
and lamb may lay down and a little child shall lead 
them. 

He has made the world both larger and smaller 
tihan ever before; larger in regard to its points of 



220 The Scourging of a Race, 

contact with our daily lives; smaller in regard to the 
facility with w^hich the contact is made. 

There are now no hermit nations. The nations have 
risen above their former boundaries, and mingled their 
liberated waters in one great ocean of natural life and 
Christian endeavor. Steamships and railways make 
distant continents near neighbors. Telegraphs and 
telephones have made the world a ''worshiping gal- 
lery.;' 

Science and religion have shaken hands together, de- 
claring the conflict is over and hereafter they shall 
both contend for the time when the voice of Christian- 
ity shall blend with the music of every river and ocean, 
like the sotmd of many waters. 

It sihall wake the echoes in the valley of the Congo, 
until in Africa, as in America, hilltop shall answer to 
hilltop and valley to valley with the ''old, old story of 
the cross.'' 

But the text had reference to a different kind of gift 
than had ever been presented to men. The gift of 
Jesus. He is the world's greatest gift, not a loan, not 
a purchase, but an unutterably precious and unspeak- 
ably glorious gift to a lost world. 

He is unspeakable in his personal glory and the per- 
fection of his mediatorial grace. 

As mediator of the new covenant he came to establish 
an everlasting kingdom. 

He took upon himself our nature, assumed man's 
attitude under the offended law, and thus established 
a medium through which sinful man might have access 
to the throne of God. 

The world lay in ruins. Jesus must raise it to its 
original glory and present it to God without spot or 
blemish. The world was dead Jesus must give it a 
new hold upon life ; he must put it within reach of se- 
curing eternal life and then by faith make it the real 
possessor of life eternal, for saith Jesus : "He that 
i>elieveth on the Son, hath everlasting life." The world 



The Scourging of a Race, 221 

was blind, Jesus must restore its sight; it was dumb, 
Christ must loosen its stammering, and make the 
tongue of the dumb to sing. 

He was to bring life and immortality to light; to 
lift from overburdened humanity its heavy yoke; to 
say to the weary, "Be at rest,'' and the hungry and 
thirsty, ''I am the bread of life,'' ''Come take of the 
waters of life freely." 

He plead for us on earth, he pleads for us, now in 
heaven; he is our advocate, whose mutest eloquence 
is grander than all (the music of the iSymphonies of 
heaven or the mightiest efforts of earth's noblest and 
best orations. It is unspeakable because of its ancient 
origin. Jesus is the best produdt of a past eternity. 
Jehovah passed by a Michael who wrestled with the 
dragons until he routed his armies from the fair hills 
of immortality and plunged the rebel into ''adamantine 
chains and penal fires" forever. He did not stop at 
Gabriel, for in the development of his eternal purposes 
he had other work for him to do ; he came nearer home 
than that; out of the bosom of his own love, he pre- 
sented Jesus, as "the ancient of days," the gift of eter- 
nity to a dying world. 

Given before the corner-stone of earth was laid, or 
even the morning stars turned thdr luminous faces 
toward 'earth and introduced day to men ; given before 
the earth made a revolution, or flying clouds became 
the trackless sea it should plough, until he who 
formed declared Ithe death of time and eternity's birth ; 
given in the inscrutable depths of the divine purposes, 
as the result of the same triune council that said, "Let 
us make man." 

He was the promised gift. To him all the pro- 
phets give witness. The dying patriarch, Jacob, on 
the threshold of eternity declared, "The sceptre shall 
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between 
his feet until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gath- 
ering of the people be." 



222 The Scourging of a Race. 

The evangelistic prophet, Isaiah, beheld him lying 
in innocent babehood, born, arid proceeds to announce 
the fact and give a vivid description: ''Unto us a 
child is born, unto us a son is given, and the govern- 
ments shall be upon his shoulders; his name shall be 
called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the 
Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace." Zecha- 
riah lifted to the heights of prophetic vision, beheld 
him and exclaimed, ''In that day there shall be a foun- 
tian opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness ;" and while shep- 
herds watched their sheep by night, upon Bethlehem's 
plains, a swift winged messenger appeared and said, 
"Fear not, behold I bning you good tidings of great 
joy. For unto you a child is born this day in the city 
of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.'' 

Attending this angelic messenger, was the heavenly 
host, who sang the first notes of redemption's morn, 
'* Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good 
will toward men." 

The promise made in eternity had been kept, and 
*'The seed of the woman began to bruise the serpent's 
head." 

He was the precious gift. Jesus is precious to every 
believing soul. He is "the fairest among ten thousand 
and altogether lovely." He is precious to the living. 
We would not live without him ; he is our strength in 
weakness, our shield is danger ; our help in trouble, our 
w^ealth in poverty; our Rock in a weary land and 
ishelter in the time of storm. He is precious to the 
dying. David so regarded it, for said he, "Though I 
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
fear no evil." 

'Stephen, from the midst of showering stones, ex- 
claimed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 

Paul, from Nero's block, paused because of un- 
v»avering faith in God, and said, "I am now ready to 
be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. 



The Scourging of a Race. 223 

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the right- 
eous Judge, shall give me at that day.'' 
The poet sings, 

"Jesus can make a dying bed feel 

Soft as downy pillows are, 
While on his breast I lean my head, 

And breathe my life out sweetly there." 



224 The Scourging of a Race, 



The Church and the Age. 



Address Delivered Before the Baptist Young People's Uriion 
of Second Baptist ChurciA, WaslAlngton, D. C. 



The Christian church is the pioneer of civilziation, 
the steadfast friend of progress and enlightment, the 
truest benefactor of the human race. 

In every age, it has stood as a distinct community, 
based upon truer and nobler principles than are fun- 
damental to human governments. Upon men and in- 
stitutions it has left its hallowed impress, moulding 
sentiment, shaping destiny and (marshaling its mighty 
forces, against ali that is vicious and immoral in man 
and society. 

Our highest ideals of manhood, our purest stand- 
ards of morality, our assured and settled hopes of a 
blessed immortality have come to us alone, through 
the doctrines of the Christian church. Greece at- 
tempted to codify them in its philosophical systems, 
but failed, Rome never knew^ t!>em. Culture does not 
produce them. Philosophy justifies, but can not origi- 
nate iLem; their presence and power is due to the teach- 
ings of him who conquered both Greece and Roni-^^ 
and laid their human methods, lifeless at his feet. 

'The enfranchisement of the slave, the curbing of 
royal tyranny, the defense of the poor, the exaltation 
of woman to her God-given sphere, the great moral 
revolutionis that have swept away error and corrup- 
tion in high places — ^all that man now or ever will 
call blessed, is embraced in the 'history of the Christian 
church. 

But what of this age in which so much is expected 



The Scourging of a Race, 225 

of her? Does she still maintain her cause? This is 
an age of civil and political liberty — a democratic age 
— when the sovereignty of the people asserts its divine 
light, and independent of the powers that be, relegates 
to oblivion their empty theories, contending that all 
political institutions come from God, through the 
people, reserving the inalienable right of revolution 
to themselves. 

It is an age of social struggle for the right to live 
and enjoy an equal measure of natural productions; 
an age of material progress, of invention, and scienti- 
fic research; of the subjugi+ion of nature's forces to 
the jervice of man. for scien«.e has discovered nature's 
deepe.'^t secrets— l:hnist itself upon the blazing planet's 
path and wrested from its stronghold the hidden prin- 
ciples of its harmony and order; it has taught the 
vapor to toil, the winds to worship and the lightning 
to speak. 

* It is an age of intellectual force, when mastr^r 
mirids are solving the intricate problems that have baf- 
fled the mental acumen of all the illustrious past. It 
is an age of so-called liberality, when creeds and 
dogmas are ignored for principles and practices, that 
gain popular plaudit. 

''An age, on ages telling." But where does the 
church stand before these universal evidences of pro- 
gression? Welcoming all this with outstretched arms, 
she is still beyond the age, still exponential of man's 
greatest possibility. In her presence science bends 
the suppliant knee and acknowledges itself her hand- 
maid ; art gathers her sacred scenes into its enchanted 
palaces and poetry invokes the aid of the muses, that 
God's way may be justified to man. 

It is no easy task to lead such mighty influences; 
to stem unmoved and unmovable the rushing current 
of atheism and materialism ; to drive back into fearful 
14 



226 The Scourging of a Race. 

disorder every sacrilegious invader from its sacred 
soil, and to come forth after eighteen centuries the 
hero of every battlefield. This is an irrefutable testi- 
mony to the divinity of God's church. 

This record is the result of unswerving loyalty ld 
the truth — ^the trath of the Bible. This is the sword 
she has always unsheathed in the presence of her 
enemies and with which every victory has been 
achieved. The church cannot afford to question its 
teachings, it may seek for new light to find a truer 
path to duty, but even then she must pursue her in- 
vestigations with ^'reverence and godly fear,'' bearing 
In mind that this spot is holy ground and every foot- 
fall wakes the voice of ages. 

The higher criticism, the new theology, and all other 
systems characteristic of this peculiar age, must be 
regarded only as at^xiliaries. They are secondary, not 
primary. The church should be careful lest it barter 
away the truth for the pottage of popularity among 
men. The worldling has inverted the order of things, 
when he says the church should be up to the times. 
Tt is the mission of the church to bring the times up to 
its .^'tandard. This is its past record and must be its 
future glory. Uncompromisingly, universally, it must 
"contend for the faith once delivered to the saints." 

In its treatment of the age, the church must guard 
against worldliness. A disposition to accept part of 
the world's religion and part of Christ's is a violation 
of the law announced by Christ, ''No man can serve 
two masters." Ic is a snare and a delusion to attempt 
to win the world for Christ by an effort at conformity 
to its ways. Whosoever is a friend of the world is 
an enemy to Christ — Christianity admits of no union 
with the world. It says to the church, ''Render unto 
Caesar the things that are Catsar's, and unto God the 
things that are God's." 

The church should guard against mere formality. 



The Scourging of a Race, 227 

''A living dog is better than a dead lion." One of 
the most pleasant and exhilarating sights for his Sa- 
tanic majesty is a church chasing the butterfly of form 
and fashion. 

Over on the eastern hemisphere there is a body of 
water, whose surface the winds and storms of heaven 
never ruffle. Its waters are black and bitter and heavy, 
no living thing is in them, but beneath are the un- 
iepulchred cities of Sodom and Gomonah and the 
cities of the plain. They call it the Dead Sc^a. P is 
a perfect transcript of a cold and formal church. No 
genial rays of the sun melt its icy soul, its life is black 
and heavy. Its talent is buried and its candle dim and 
flickering. 

Now, to hold its own the church must stand and 
unitedly contend against inward as well as outward 
foes. Mere denominational uniformity is not Chris- 
tian unity. As Negro Baptists our strength is seen 
iri Christian unity and doctrine. We have not learned 
to give uniform co-operation to our missionary and 
educational enterprises. In some of the states, per- 
sonal diflferences have been dragged irito prominence, 
and division and estangement have followed, but be 
it said to our credit, that unity of doctrine and prin- 
ciple serve to keep us in the denomination. We never 
have a general exodus to other religious bodies. 

We have yet to learn that church independence is 
modified by interdependent relations with o/ther 
churches. This fact does not destroy individual equal- 
ity. We are links in the great chain of denominational 
existence ; weaken one and you afifect all in proportion, 
for ''no man liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto 
himself." 

Our independence becomes more potential and far- 
reaching as we recognize how dependent we are on 
others for mutual counsel and co-operation, and how 
necessary it is to the protection of all those interests 



228 The Scourging of a Race. 

we love so dearly; thus it is made to contribute to the 
idea of church unity. It strengthens because it unites. 
So the church must present a solid phalanx against 
every foe, whether internal or external. Always re- 
membering that its mission is the subjugation of a 
world to Christ. 



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